Agribusiness Insurance in Texas
Somewhere between the family place and the co-op sits agribusiness: hay that ships by the semi load, custom harvesting for half the county, a feed store, cattle at a scale where the margins are a spreadsheet. It is agriculture run as a business, and it needs insurance built the same way. We have worked with ag operations from this office since 1920.
When a farm becomes an agribusiness
The line is not acreage, it is commerce: regular income, customers, contracts, employees, and trucks on the highway. A hay operation selling to feed stores, a custom baler working other people's fields, a cattle operation with hired hands and hauling, a feed and seed store, an ag services outfit. Each one carries farm risk and business risk at the same time, and the policy has to speak both languages.
That usually means a program, not a single policy: the property and equipment, the liability for the work and the products, the vehicles, and the people. We build it piece by piece against how the operation actually earns.
The pieces of an ag program
Property and equipment at scale
Barns, shops, storage, and the equipment line that costs more than the land did. Values move with the market, and the schedule should be read every renewal, not just carried forward. Farm equipment insurance
Liability for the work and the goods
Work on other people's land, products that leave your hands, buyers and haulers on your place. Custom work for neighbors is still commercial work, even on a handshake.
Ag trucks and hauling
Farm tags, commercial hauls, and the line between hauling your own and hauling for hire. Cross it without the right policy and a claim gets ugly. Our trucking page covers that whole conversation. Trucking insurance
The people who work it
Texas does not require workers' compensation of most private employers, but going without it means losing legal protection against most injured-employee lawsuits, and some contracts require it outright. It is a real decision that deserves the whole picture before you make it.
Where crop insurance fits
Federal crop insurance is its own system, run through the USDA and sold by its approved providers on federal terms, and it is a different animal from the property and liability program this page describes. If crops are part of your operation, bring it up: we will help you see where the federal side ends and where your farm program needs to pick up, and point you straight about the rest.
TDI: Workers' compensation insurance guide (tdi.texas.gov) (opens in a new tab)
What to have ready
Operators know these numbers. Rough is fine.
- What the operation does and roughly what it grosses
- Buildings, equipment, and vehicles, with how each is used
- Employees and seasonal help, and any contracts that name insurance
- Current policies, so the program gets built without gaps or overlaps
Agribusiness questions we hear
Is a farm and ranch policy enough for my ag business?
Up to a point, and the point is commerce. Regular sales, custom work, employees, and highway hauling push past what most farm and ranch forms are built for. The honest answer comes from putting your operation next to your policy, which is the first thing we do.
Do I need workers' compensation for my farm crew?
Texas leaves that choice to most private employers, but the choice has teeth: without coverage you lose legal protection against most injured-employee lawsuits, and government contracts and some private ones require it. Farm work is physical work. We will lay out both sides with your actual crew in mind.
I do custom work for neighbors. Does that change my coverage?
Yes. Baling, spraying, dozer work, or hauling for anyone else is commercial work, whatever the paperwork looks like, and it raises liability and equipment questions your own-farm coverage may not answer. Tell us what you do off your own place and we will build for it.
A buyer wants a certificate of insurance before we deliver. Can you handle that?
Yes. Elevators, feed yards, and commercial buyers asking for certificates is normal, and for our clients producing them is part of the service. Bring the request and we will match the certificate to what it actually asks.
Do you write crop insurance?
Federal crop insurance runs through USDA-approved providers on federal terms, and the right first step is an honest conversation about your operation. Bring the crops up when you call: we will help you see how the federal side and your farm program fit together, and tell you plainly who does what.
Our operation is part ranch, part business. Which page are we?
You are this conversation. Most real operations are mixed, and the program should cover the whole thing without seams. Start with the call, describe the operation the way you would to a neighbor, and we will sort the pieces.
Build the program around the operation
Tell us how the operation earns: the ground, the equipment, the trucks, the people, the contracts. A licensed agent builds the program piece by piece and reads every certificate request that follows.
Stover & Crouch Insurance Madisonville, Texas, since 1920