Managing liability on the farm and beyond

Greg Dyde of Elders Insurance Wagga Wagga deals with many farming clients in his region and helps them develop tailored insurance solutions.

He helps local farmers manage risks on their own property, but also when they perform farming activities at other locations.

"Farmers diversify these days and they'll go off farm to earn additional income but when they do, they'll take their own equipment. They'll maybe contract to other farmers to put a crop in, harvest a crop or to do some spraying work, for example," said Mr Dyde.

This can also be a good way to help cover the costs of expensive machinery which otherwise might only be used a few weeks in the year.

With all farmers keen to protect themselves, each party needs to be sure that they have appropriate liability cover in the case of accidents.

Mr Dyde says that an important factor in determining whether current cover is sufficient is the amount of contracting work the farmer is doing.

"Our farm insurance policy can extend liability cover to these guys for them to go off farm and earn an additional income as long as it is no more than 20 per cent of their gross farm earnings," Mr Dyde.

For example, if a farmer earns $100,000 a year from cattle sales and his crops, that means that they can contract themselves out for some harvesting work and earn up to $20,000 a year and their existing farm liability policy will cover these activities.

However when the contracting work starts to generate income beyond that 20 per cent mark, an extra liability cover is required.

"He would then be considered a contract harvester because his commercial activity is at that percentage, so we would need to put a specific public liability in place for him as a contract harvester."

Mr Dyde says that Elders Insurance Wagga Wagga has much experience with helping farmers who also engage in contract work to manage their liability needs.