Livestock Insurance and Business Interruption Insurance varies extremely depending on the form you choose and the insurance company you purchase it from.
A quick definition for each of these:
Livestock Insurance: Insurance coverage designed to insure livestock for death resulting or made necessary from a variety of causes.
Business Interruption Insurance: Insurance against business expenses and loss of income when a business is partially or wholly interrupted as a result of damage to property from a variety of causes.
The key item to note with the Livestock Insurance is that you are insuring in case of death. I have been asked many times if the claim can include the animals that survived but have lost value or growth/reproductive performance as a result of the claim. The answer is no, unless there is death-there is no claim on the remaining livestock.
The key item to note with the Business Interruption Insurance, is that it will begin to pay when there is a claim on the building or livestock. Without their being a claim on either of these items, the Business Interruption Insurance will not respond.
One tricky situation that many producers do find themselves in today is if you are custom feeding for others and the livestock die – due to an insured loss, but there is no damage to the barn. Now you end up having to wait for additional livestock to become available in order to fill the barn again. The business interruption coverage may or may not pay out on this claim. It can depend on one little detail that needs to be taken care of. This detail can easily be overlooked. Is your policy set up correctly?
Today’s farmers should purchase insurance from people who know farming. Farming should be viewed as a business, and you should seek advice from people who understand your business.