Fire in the paddock
Standing crop and harvested grain against fire, including harvester-started fires.
Crop Insurance
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Crop Insurance
Cover for broadacre and horticultural crops.
Crop exposure is seasonal and concentrated: most of the value sits in the paddock for a few weeks, and fire or hail in that window can take a whole year's income.
What is it?
Crop cover in Australia is generally arranged around defined events - principally fire and hail - for cereals, oilseeds, pulses, cotton, cane and horticulture, rather than as a broad yield guarantee.
What does crop insurance cover?
Hail
Hail damage to standing crop, arranged by crop type and region.
Harvest machinery
Headers and chaser bins, where breakdown at harvest carries its own consequences.
What affects the cost?
- Crop types and hectares
- Region and historical hail frequency
- Harvest timing and machinery
- Storage arrangements on farm
- Fire mitigation equipment
Worth raising on the call
- Crop cover addresses defined events, not general yield or price risk.
- Harvester fires are a leading cause of paddock loss.
- Grain stored on farm after harvest may need separate treatment.
Claims we are commonly asked about
Header fire runs into standing crop
A bearing fails in the header on a hot windy afternoon and the fire is into the standing crop before the chaser bin and the fire unit can hold it. Claims like this usually involve both the crop fire section and the machinery policy, and how the burnt area is measured and valued is normally the main point of discussion.
Hail two weeks before harvest
A storm cell drops hail across several paddocks of ripening canola and shatters pods that were within a fortnight of being stripped. Hail claims are typically assessed in the paddock by a loss adjuster comparing damaged areas against undamaged country, so leaving check strips standing until assessment usually helps.
Fire reaches harvested grain on farm
A stubble fire jumps a firebreak and reaches a bunker of harvested grain waiting on a delivery slot. Harvested grain in on-farm storage is often treated differently from standing crop, so whether it responds generally depends on how the storage and its value were declared.
Worth confirming in the wording
- Worth confirming what the policy treats as an insured event, since a defined-events crop policy is generally built around fire and hail rather than yield shortfall from drought, frost or price movement.
- Worth confirming the conditions attached to harvest operations, because many crop fire sections require compliance with harvest and total fire bans and the carrying of specified firefighting equipment.
- Worth confirming how the hail excess is calculated and when cover attaches, since hail is commonly written with a percentage deductible and a growth-stage or waiting-period condition before it responds.
Common questions
Does crop insurance cover drought?
Crop cover in Australia is generally arranged around defined events such as fire and hail rather than as a yield guarantee, so drought is commonly outside it. Multi-peril and yield-based products exist in limited form and are underwritten quite differently, so it is worth asking specifically what is available for your region and crops.
Is frost damage covered?
Frost cover is available far more narrowly than fire and hail, and where it is offered it is usually a specialist or optional section with its own conditions and growth-stage windows. It should not be assumed to sit inside a standard crop fire and hail policy, so confirm it in the wording and the PDS before seeding decisions rely on it.
When do I need to arrange crop cover?
Cover generally needs to be in place well before the risk period, and hail sections commonly have a waiting period plus a growth stage before they attach. Leaving it until a storm is forecast is usually too late, so the practical timing is to set the sums insured per hectare as the crop is established and adjust as the season develops.
What does crop insurance cost?
There is no standard rate, because it depends on crop types and hectares, the sum insured per hectare, the region and its historical hail frequency, the excess or deductible chosen, on-farm storage arrangements and the firefighting equipment carried. The same paddocks can be rated quite differently between insurers, which is where comparing terms matters.
General information only. Cover, limits and exclusions depend on the PDS, TMD, eligibility, underwriting and the policy terms. See farm insurance for the wider picture.
10 Years Advising Steadfast Network Access Licensed Australian Brokers Australia-Wide
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