For most Americans a farm is little more than a pretty picture on their wall and the source of the food on their table. They go through their days without thinking about how the recent dry spell or latest windstorm is going to affect their neighbor’s farms. America’s crop farmers don’t have that luxury. Their crops are their bread and butter, the foundation on which their ability to survive is built. That’s why these farmers need more than homeowners insurance.

They need reliable crop insurance as well.

When you’re shopping around for homeowners insurance quotes you’re going to hear insurance providers tell you not to include the cost of your land in your home’s total value. Why? Because the cost of the land is superfluous in most cases. Most homeowners really don’t care about their grass enough to bother insuring it, and most homeowners insurance companies wouldn’t bother to do it if they did.

The average lawn isn’t going to take damages as the result of a windstorm, hail or fire that’s going to make it unlivable, unlike the house. Homeowners insurance companies are in the business of insuring houses. Unfortunately, for the crop farmer having an uninsured crop could spell disaster.

Crop farming is an unreliable enterprise during the best of times. Plants are more fragile than most people who eat their bread and corn and don’t think about it realize. While love and care can coax a field to yield a strong crop, there are so many factors that could make it go wrong that many Americans would cringe at the thought of basing their future and their financial security on such an unstable enterprise. Since the very nature of farming doesn’t accommodate keeping a second full time job to pick up the slack if drought, hail, fire or other natural disasters destroy a season’s crop, it’s important that farmers have crop insurance to help themselves brace for the worst.

Since even the best home insurance policy probably isn’t going to extend to coverage for a hundred acres of crops, farmers have to look somewhere else. Fortunately, they’ve got options.
The Crop Insurance Research Bureau is an organization of national insurance providers that are willing and able to extend you high quality crop protection insurance coverage, and through their resources they’re able to find insurance for just about any insurable crop.

(Insurable crops include, but are in no way, shape or form limited to, apples, corn, blueberries, soybeans, tomatoes, potatoes and peaches. The list goes on and on; talk to your state insurance bureau to find out what crops are insurable in your area.)

The USDA’s Risk Management Agency also provides resources that go beyond homeowners insurance to provide coverage for most insurable crops (and information about those coverage services is available online). The USDA also offers an emergency relief program similar to FEMA for farmers whose crops are uninsurable to help them get back on their feet in case of disaster.

The bottom line is that as a farmer you’re going to need to go beyond homeowners insurance to protect your home, because your lawn and your crops are the bread and butter that are going to keep your family going. Contact your local crop insurance provider today.