Risks on the Hobby Farms Series
This series profiles fictional hobby farms with farm operations, common insurance coverages, and a few common risks. Start with our intro post about hobby farms!
Hobby Farm: The Gardener
Many hobby farmers enjoy growing fruits, vegetables, and berries on their land. Choosing to sell excess produce as-is or creating a product like a jam or pickle are common ways to sell to the public. Some hobby farmers choose to host u-pick operations, welcoming people to their land to pick food.
About 30 minutes southwest of Brandon, MB, this fictional hobby farm features:
- One house
- Garage and workshop
- Extensive inventory of tools
- Tractor and attachments
- Utility Vehicle
- Berry orchard with haskaps, gooseberries, and chokeberries
- Four-week “u-pick” operation during berry season
- Three large vegetable gardens with crops like beets, onions, carrots, garlic, squash and potatoes
Common Insurance Coverages
At Mutual Fire Insurance, many of our insurance products offer a range of options including basic perils, limited perils, extended perils, and comprehensive coverage. Hobby farm policies include protection for the home and personal liability and the farm and farm liability. Together with your insurance broker, you can choose the best coverages and amounts of insurance for your needs.
Here are some popular insurance coverages for hobby farmers who sell produce.
Tools
If a loss occurs which damages most of the tools you use to farm, it can be quite costly to replace them all. Adding coverage to replace tools if an insured loss occurs is helpful.
Farm Machinery
Growing fruits and vegetables is a labour-intensive process. Farm machinery—like a tractor with implement accessories like tillers, box blade, pallet forks, or snowblower— can be a time-saving investment for hobby farmers! Adding coverage is a great way to protect your machinery from insurable losses.
Farm Equipment Breakdown
When equipment breaks down, it is usually at an inconvenient time. Coverage can repair and replace farm equipment that breaks due to mechanical, electrical, or pressure system failure.
Farm Activities of Short Duration
If hosting short events that bring people to the hobby farm, adding liability coverage to protect you for the added risk during the event brings peace of mind.
Hobby Farm Risks to Be Aware Of
Inviting the public to your farm for a u-pick berry operation presents a whole different scope of risks. Along with finding the right insurance coverage, hobby farmers can reduce their risks by:
- Avoid supplying risky tools to farm visitors, like a ladder
- Clearly mark areas where people can walk and pick
- Store any machinery away from prying eyes and ensure it is locked
- Provide bathroom and handwashing facilities
- Provide clean picking containers
For hobby farmers producing food or beverages for sale, ensure you are abiding by provincial guidelines. For example, some regions require all food to be made in commercial kitchens and other regions may have exceptions for low-risk foods.
Insurance is not usually available for crops growing in the ground. However, coverage can be purchased to protect machinery, buildings, contents, and more. Depending on the coverage selected, protection can extend to a wide range of perils like fire, explosion, theft, or hail.
Common sense risk management for the hobby farm is to teach everyone living on the farm and visitors (especially children) basic safety. Additionally, keep in mind these common-sense best practices:
- Wear appropriate protective gear for the job you are doing, for example tying back long hair, wearing boots and protective eyewear when operating a tractor
- Store any chemicals, fuel, or pesticides in a locked container
- Complete regular safety checks around the property, when something is damaged or worn down, replace in a timely manner
- Never store keys in the ignition of mobile farm machinery, use the parking brake
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