Protect Your Herd With Livestock Mortality Insurance
A herd of cattle, goats, sheep or horses offers protection from predators by their natural tendency to “bunch.” Their size is also a deterrent. Predator mortality data must be available to herders promptly so that the causes of any spikes can be identified quickly and responded to accordingly. This may involve using fecal egg counts to monitor parasites.
Pricing
There are a variety of pricing options for livestock mortality insurance. The price will vary whether you are insuring one animal or an entire herd. This is because the risk of a specific event will be higher when guaranteeing the pack as a whole compared to a single animal. For cattle producers, two policy options are available from the USDA’s Risk Management Agency: Livestock Risk Protection (LRP) and Livestock Gross Margin (LGM). Both policies offer options regarding purchase timing, coverage periods and ending values, and more flexible valuation options. LRP and LGM are designed to help protect your operation from price declines in feeder cattle, fed cattle, swine and lambs. They may also supplement your price risk management strategies if you need more production volume to take advantage of traditional options contracts and hedging tools.
Coverage Options
There are several coverage options available to help protect your herd from unforeseen circumstances that may arise. Some of these policies include blanket coverage that covers all your farm property, equipment and livestock with a set value; individual or herd insurance that covers a specific number of animals identified by some unique identifier (like an ear tag); and animal mortality coverage that protects against loss to your herd from fire, lightning, tornadoes, blizzards and other natural disasters, as well as theft. Livestock risk protection insurance can safeguard your operation against declining livestock market prices. You can buy a variety of coverage levels and insurance periods to match when your feeder cattle or swine are sold, and if the actual ending value is below the policy’s floor price, you’ll be reimbursed. Dairy producers can also protect against declines in quarterly milk sales with Dairy Revenue Protection.
Exclusions
Depending on your operation, excluding certain types of animals from a livestock mortality policy may be necessary. These include showing, breeding, and exotic animals. It is also possible to get blanket coverage that insures all livestock on your property. You can also buy individual animal coverage for higher-valued animals or a specific group, like a herd. Direct transmission of infectious agents from purchased cattle is a major threat to herd health. Whether the pathogen is a contagious bovine respiratory disease such as foot and mouth or a parasitic infection such as porcine epidemic diarrhea or ringworm, the impact on herd productivity is significant. Biosecurity protocols can reduce the risk of herd additions introducing disease to a farm. This article highlights the relative importance of direct transmission via purchased cattle and details several ameliorative protocols that can be prioritized and tailored to a particular farm. These include herd management strategies such as bioexclusion and herd-level screening for herd-level infections.
Claims
If your herd experiences an event that results in a loss, you can file a claim with Protect Your Herd. This will ensure you receive the payments you need to recover from loss or damage. For example, if your herd is in the middle of calving season and a cold snap hits, it could put new calves at risk of death. To avoid this, some ranchers will create windbreaks of evergreen trees or provide lean-to’s for cows to huddle in during extreme cold. Another scenario that may result in a claim is when predators target your herd. In this case, working with a herd management professional is important to address the issue and mitigate potential risks.
