Farm Insurance
Sutherland Insurance places farm insurance for Ontario producers, covering the farm dwelling, barns and outbuildings, equipment and machinery, livestock, stored produce, farm liability and business interruption. It is an independent brokerage that has brokered insurance in Guelph, Ontario since 1870 and is licensed by the Registered Insurance Brokers of Ontario.
- Line
- Commercial insurance
- Area served
- All of Ontario
- Claims support
- In-house claims representative available to every client on a claim
Who needs farm insurance?
Farm insurance applies to operations producing agricultural income, including cash-crop and mixed farms, livestock and dairy operations, greenhouse and market-garden growers, and producers who sell direct to the public from the farm gate.
A farm policy differs from a homeowner policy in what it treats as insurable property. It brings the dwelling, the outbuildings, the machinery, the animals and the stored crop under one contract, and it extends liability to visitors, to livestock that stray, and to produce sold to the public. Operations that add agri-tourism, a farm store or on-farm processing take on commercial exposures that a straight farm form does not answer without endorsement.
What can an Ontario farm insurance policy cover?
What a policy can cover
- Farm buildings and structures: barns, outbuildings, fencing and grain storage
- Farm equipment and machinery: tractors, implements and irrigation plant
- Livestock: death or injury of animals from named perils
- Produce and stored crop: harvested crop and feed held on the property
- Commercial general liability: third-party bodily injury and property damage arising from operations
- Limited farm pollution liability: third-party bodily injury and property damage arising from a sudden and accidental escape of fuel, fertiliser, pesticide or manure
- Business interruption: lost income and continuing expenses while the premises are unusable after an insured loss
- Commercial auto: vehicles registered to the business and driven for business purposes
Commonly excluded under standard Ontario farm insurance wordings
- Wear, tear and gradual deterioration
- Workplace injury to the business’s own employees, which falls to WSIB coverage in Ontario
- Overland flood and earthquake, unless added by endorsement
- Gradual pollution and contamination
- Intentional or fraudulent acts by the insured
Exclusions vary by insurer and by policy form; the issued policy governs.
Frequently asked questions
Does farm insurance cover crop loss in the field?
A farm property policy insures harvested crop and feed stored on the property. Growing crop in the field is handled through production insurance administered by Agricorp in Ontario, which is a separate contract from the farm property and liability policy.
Are farm vehicles insured under the farm policy?
Implements of husbandry used on the farm are insured as farm machinery. Any vehicle plated for highway use carries compulsory Ontario auto insurance in its own right, and farm trucks are rated on how far and how often they travel off the property.
Is a farm store or agri-tourism covered?
Retail sales, on-farm events and agri-tourism introduce public liability that the base farm form does not contemplate, because it assumes visitors are incidental rather than invited. These operations are declared and rated as commercial exposures when the policy is written, and the liability section is endorsed to answer them.
Get a farm insurance quote
A licensed Sutherland Insurance broker compares the available markets on every quote request.
Get a farm insurance quote Call 519-822-0160
A real person answers, Monday to Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.