A word of warning from someone who has just experiences a loss, be sure you check your insurance coverage for your livestock to be sure it has kept pace with increasing livestock prices. Beef cattle prices have gone up so much in the past year that the value of your herd may have surpassed your insurance coverage.

Why does this matter? So what if you are covered for $80,000 worth of livestock assets and their value was $100,000? Insurance companies require that you carry coverage for at least 80% of the value of your assets (livestock, buildings, equipment, etc.)

If you have 100 animals valued at an average of $1,000 each last year and you carried $80,000 coverage and you lost an animal to lightning strike (or other covered loss) the insurance company will look at the current value of the animal you lost that might be $2,000 and will look at the total current value of your herd which might average $2,000 now and find you did not have enough coverage and will prorate the payment based on the coverage you have. So even though the animal is now worth $2,000 you only had it covered for $1,000 so your payment is less than expected.

Another time farmers, business owners and home owners are surprised is when they have a loss, such as a fire and find they only insured the actual cash value of the building not the replacement cost. This is a concern when older buildings are insured at actual cash value and businesses do not get enough insurance to replace/rebuild the building.

Any time you have a change in the asset value on your farm - buy in a number of animals, buy new or used equipment, sell off a number of animals or equipment, major improvements to barns and facilities... it is time to check with your insurance agent to be sure you have the correct coverage. Also, when moving your animals to another farm to pasture or other major event, checking in with your agent makes sense.

Another tip learned the hard way from some farmers is to be sure farm records including asset records and pictures stored electronically are stored off the farm either in an email to yourself, share directories (ie Dropbox, Cloud, etc.) or copy on a thumb drive and put in a safety deposit box. Consider how you would resurrect your farm records including justifying the value of your assets if your barn and house were burned to the ground. It is not a pleasant image, but being prepared will give you a little peace of mind if the time should come that you need that information.

• Aging and Farmers: Understanding "Normal" and Adapting to Changes at 11:00 am (EST) on Tuesday, December 2  Deborah Reed of the University of Kentucky College of Nursing will present a 1-hour webinar.  Visit www.agrability.org/ Online-Training/virtualntw for session descriptions and more information.

   

• Maine Hay Directory is maintained by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension to link those who have forages with those who need forages for their animals. In the coming months those who have forage to sell will be listing what they have available (hay, haylage, silage, pasture, hay stumpage), the form (large bales, small bales, etc.), where they are located, if delivery is available, etc. The listings are free, we only ask that you update your listing.) Viewing the listing is free too and it is listed by county. A note that some unscrupulous buyers will send unsuspecting farmers a check for too much for their purchase (some are from eBay, Craig's List, etc.) and ask the farmer to wire the surplus back. Be sure to check the Attorney General's Caution to Farmers for Over Payment. If you are contacted by one of these scam artists be sure to contact the AG's Consumer Protection Division at (800) 436-2131.
• How to Test Forage Quality is a new YouTube Video produced by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension and features Rick Kersbergen, Extension Professor from Waldo County. Several UMaine Extension Offices have hay probes available for you to borrow to take hay samples. Contact the office nearest you to see if they have one. If not we may be able to get one to that office.

• 2014 Farm Bill Informational Meetings - General sessions will be held in November. For the complete schedule of sessions go to the Maine Farm Service Agency Site here.