When you’re responsible for a grain elevator or grain dealership, you’re not simply insuring buildings.

You’re protecting an operation that may include grain storage, receiving and handling equipment, feed operations, trucks, commercial vehicles, employees, customer property, inventory, multiple locations, and millions of dollars of specialized equipment.

At Frost Insurance Agency, we understand that these businesses require more than a standard commercial insurance policy.

They require an insurance program built around the operation.

Grain Operations Are Different

Consider everything that might exist within a typical grain and feed business:

1. Grain bins and storage facilities
2. Elevator legs, conveyors and augers
3. Grain dryers
4. Scales and receiving equipment
5. Feed manufacturing and handling equipment
6. Warehouses and offices
7. Electrical and control systems
8. Trucks and commercial vehicles
9. Grain and feed inventory
10. Multiple locations
11. Employees working around heavy machinery
12. Customer and vendor traffic
13. Pollution and environmental exposures

Each creates a different potential loss.

More importantly, these exposures are connected. A loss involving one critical piece of equipment can affect the entire operation.

The Biggest Loss Might Not Be the Equipment

Suppose an elevator leg, dryer, electrical system, or other critical piece of equipment suffers a major covered loss during harvest.

The cost to repair the equipment is only the beginning.

What does it cost the business when grain can’t move?

The operation may suddenly face additional trucking expenses, temporary storage arrangements, lost revenue, emergency repairs, overtime, contractual issues, or the need to redirect grain to another facility.

That’s why we believe a serious grain-operation insurance review needs to look beyond property coverage.

Business income, extra expense, equipment breakdown and contingency planning can be every bit as important as insuring the building itself.

Multiple Locations Create Another Challenge

Many established grain businesses have grown over decades.

One location becomes two. Additional bins are added. A feed operation expands. Older buildings remain in service while new equipment is installed. Trucks are added. Property values increase.

Eventually, the insurance program becomes fairly complicated.

That’s where detailed coverage analysis becomes important.

At Frost Insurance, we want to understand:

1. What happens at each location?
2. How much grain can be stored?
3. Which equipment is essential to the operation?
4. Are buildings and equipment insured at realistic replacement values?
5. Where are the largest concentrations of property?
6. What happens if the largest location becomes temporarily unusable?
7. Can production or grain receiving shift to another location?
8. How long would specialized equipment realistically take to replace?

Those questions help us determine whether an insurance program matches the business it is supposed to protect.

Replacement Cost Deserves Special Attention

Grain facilities often contain equipment that has been accumulated over many years.

The fact that a bin, dryer, elevator leg, or building is older doesn’t necessarily mean it’s inexpensive to replace.

In fact, replacement may require significantly more money than expected once you consider current materials, specialized contractors, electrical work, engineering, equipment availability, and installation.

For that reason, Frost believes grain operations should regularly evaluate replacement cost and property limits, rather than allowing values to simply carry forward year after year.

A lower insured value may save premium.

It can also create a significant problem when a major loss occurs.

Grain, Feed and Agribusiness Liability

Property is only one side of the insurance program.

Depending upon the particular operation, we may also need to evaluate:

1. General liability
2. Product and completed operations liability
3. Commercial automobile
4. Trucking exposures
5. Workers’ compensation
6. Umbrella and excess liability
7. Environmental and pollution coverage
8. Cyber liability
9. Crime and employee dishonesty
10. Equipment breakdown
11. Business income and extra expense
12. Property of others
13. Employment practices liability

The appropriate coverage depends on what the business actually does.

That’s why we don’t believe in treating every grain elevator or agricultural business the same.

Local Knowledge Matters

Frost Insurance Agency is deeply rooted in northwest Ohio agriculture.

Our offices in Archbold, Napoleon, Holgate and Whitehouse put us in the middle of the communities where our agricultural clients live and operate.

We understand the difference between insuring a farm and insuring a sophisticated commercial agribusiness.

And we recognize that established grain businesses aren’t necessarily looking for the cheapest insurance policy available.

They’re looking for an insurance program they can depend upon when something significant goes wrong.

Let Frost Review Your Grain Operation

If you own or operate a grain elevator, grain dealership, feed operation, grain storage facility, agricultural cooperative, seed business, or related agribusiness, Frost Insurance would welcome the opportunity to review your current insurance program.

We’ll look beyond the premium and examine the structure of the coverage itself.

Because ultimately, the most important question isn’t:

“How much are we paying for insurance?”

It’s:

“If we have a major loss tomorrow, have we properly protected the business we’ve spent decades building?”

To learn more about how proactive risk management and personalized advice can protect what matters most, contact Frost Insurance Agency.  Call us at 419-446-2777, email frost@frostins.com, or click here to start a conversation about your risks and goals.

Prefer a face-to-face review? Visit one of our four convenient locations in Archbold, Napoleon, Holgate, or Whitehouse — and let’s build a protection plan, not just a policy.