The Home, the Barn, the Machinery, and the Crop — All Under One Policy.
Protecting farmers and their operations
Crop and produce farms grow row crops, produce, orchards, and specialty crops on owned or leased ground, typically with a farm dwelling, barns and bins, machinery, and often hired and seasonal labor — and increasingly an agritourism side, from u-picks and corn mazes to farm stands and events. The defining feature is the blend: farm insurance is a purpose-built package that combines the property and liability sections a homeowner would recognize with commercial agricultural exposures — machinery, stored crops, and farm liability — in one contract that a homeowners policy excludes and a commercial general liability policy is too narrow to provide. A farm needs coverage built around blended property and liability, chemical-drift pollution, and agritourism. This is a corner of agricultural insurance built for how farms actually suffer loss and get sued.
Properly structured coverage protects the family, the operation, and its visitors.
The Farm's Signature Exposures
The defining feature is the blend of personal and commercial property and liability of a working crop operation under one roof — the family home, barns and grain bins, high-value machinery, and stored crops all coexisting with farm premises liability and, increasingly, agritourism that invites the public onto hazard-rich ground. No standard personal or commercial line spans that spread. Around it sit chemical exposures unique to farming: pesticide and herbicide drift onto a neighbor's crop, bees, or property, a pollution exposure base farm liability often limits, and tank or sprayer ruptures. High-value machinery represents concentrated replacement cost, stored crops and hay are vulnerable to fire and spoilage, and farm-labor injuries raise workers'-comp questions that vary sharply by state.
Key Risks in Farm Operations
Farms face exposure related to:
A barn or hay-storage fire destroying the structure, feed, and equipment inside
A combine or tractor fire, or a rollover, totaling high-value machinery
Pesticide or herbicide overspray drifting onto a neighbor's crop or bees
Stored crops or hay lost to fire, spoilage, or collapse
An agritourism visitor injured on a hayride, in a corn maze, or at a farm stand
A farm worker injured by a PTO, auger, or machine
A weather or hail event damaging crops in the field
The blend of home, machinery, and crop is what most defines the operation.
Core Coverages for Farms
A properly built farm program typically includes:
Farm Dwelling & Household Contents — Cover the residence and personal belongings, the homeowners-equivalent section.
Farm Structures / Outbuildings — Cover barns, machine sheds, grain bins, silos, and fences.
Farm Personal Property — Covers machinery and equipment and stored crops, seed, feed, and supplies.
Farm Liability — Covers premises, operations, and farm-product liability on the operation.
Pesticide / Herbicide Drift & Pollution Liability — Covers overspray, drift, and tank rupture that base farm liability often limits or excludes.
Agritourism Liability — Covers u-picks, corn mazes, hayrides, farm stands, and events, frequently excluded from base liability.
Farm Auto, Mobile Equipment & Inland Marine — Cover farm trucks, mobile irrigation, and off-site or in-transit property.
Workers' Comp, Crop Insurance & Umbrella — Cover farm labor, protect yield and revenue through the federal program, and add higher limits.
What's Commonly Overlooked
Farm programs are most often weakened by:
Running an income operation on a homeowners policy, which excludes the farm business
Pesticide and herbicide drift limited or excluded on base liability
Agritourism excluded, so a hayride or corn-maze injury is denied
Machinery written on actual cash value rather than replacement cost
A workers'-comp gap where a state exemption leaves the farm open to direct employee suits
The gaps that hurt most are excluded agritourism and limited chemical-drift pollution.
Real-World Claim Examples
A hay-storage barn ignites and destroys the structure, feed, and equipment inside
A combine catches fire in the field, or a tractor rolls on a slope
Pesticide overspray drifts onto a neighbor's organic crop, ruining the harvest and certification
A visitor falls from a hayride wagon, and agritourism wasn't endorsed
Stored grain is lost to a bin fire or spoilage
Any one of these can be significant, and the chemical-drift and agritourism claims are the most distinctive.
Regulatory & Licensing Context
Agriculture carries a broad federal overtime exemption under the FLSA with a small-employer man-days test, though stricter state wage and overtime laws can override it. Many states exempt or partially exempt agricultural employers from mandatory workers' comp — where none is provided, an injured worker can sue the employer directly, a major uninsured-liability gap — and farms employing H-2A guest workers must provide workers'-comp-equivalent benefits to all employees. Most states have agritourism liability acts that limit operator liability for inherent risks when statutory warning signage is posted, though these don't replace insurance, and pesticide-application and drift rules govern chemical use.
Why Proper Placement Matters
Underwriters weigh acreage, the crops grown and what's sold, the number, size, and age of buildings, machinery replacement values, whether the public is welcomed onto the farm, the number of farmhands, and loss history, usually running a property-value analysis before quoting. Family and small-to-mid crop farms mostly place in the admitted market, while extensive agritourism, processing, or heavy losses move to surplus lines. Confirming pollution and agritourism coverage, insuring machinery at replacement cost, and closing the workers'-comp gap are the essential steps.
Our Approach
At Cory Washington & Co., we insure crop and produce farms around the whole operation under one policy — covering the dwelling, structures, machinery at replacement cost, and stored crops alongside farm liability, and adding the pesticide-and-herbicide-drift pollution and agritourism coverage base forms limit. We close the farm-labor workers'-comp gap before it becomes a direct suit. We also insure related businesses, including ranches, equine and horse stables, and landscaping businesses.
The home, the barn, the machinery, and the crop all under one policy make a farm a distinct risk — we build the coverage to match it, chemical-drift and agritourism included.
All insurance descriptions on this website are provided by Cory Washington & Co. LLC strictly for general informational purposes. They are not intended to be, and should not be relied upon as, legal, financial, or insurance advice. The information presented is general in nature and does not guarantee the availability, terms, conditions, or scope of any insurance coverage. Actual coverage is determined solely by the specific policy language issued by the insurer and remains subject to underwriting approval. Nothing on this website creates or implies an agent-client relationship, binds coverage, or alters any existing policy. Cory Washington & Co. LLC expressly disclaims any liability for actions taken, or not taken, based on the content provided here. For advice regarding your particular situation, please consult directly with a licensed insurance professional at Cory Washington & Co. LLC or another qualified insurance professional, and always review your policy documents in full.
See the coverages a farm business may carry — core, prevalent, and situational — plus the gap most often missed, in the Farm Coverage Checklist.
Download the fillable Farm Supplemental to start your submission, or browse all applications.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get farm insurance through Cory Washington & Co.?
Request a quote or contact our team. We start with a short conversation about your operations, analyze your exposures, then negotiate farm insurance across multiple carriers that compete for your account and present options with the trade-offs explained. Cory Washington & Co. LLC is licensed in all 50 states.
How are farm insurance premiums priced?
It depends on your exposure. Farm insurance is priced on factors like your industry, size, prior claims, and the limits and deductibles you select — so two businesses rarely pay the same. We shop your account across competing carriers and present the trade-offs in plain English.
Is farm insurance mandatory?
It depends on your situation. Some coverage is required by law; more often, farm insurance is required by a contract, lease, lender, or client before they will do business with you — and even when it is not mandated, it guards against exposures that can be severe. We review your operations and obligations and tell you plainly what you need and why.
What if another agency has already declined or non-renewed my coverage?
Difficult, specialty, and previously-declined placements are a core part of our work. We access excess & surplus (E&S) and specialty markets that many generalist agencies cannot, and we explain the trade-offs clearly so you can decide with confidence.
Available in all 50 states. See how requirements differ in California, Texas, Florida, New York, or choose your state.