Custom Harvesters and Insurance: What Traveling Crews Need to Know

By Hunter Nelson, Nelson Insurance Agency · 6 min read

Custom harvesters face insurance risks that most farming operations never have to consider.

For example, a crew may start harvesting in Texas or Oklahoma and follow the crop north through Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Montana, or Wyoming.

As a result, your trucks, equipment, employees, customer crops, and grain loads may all cross several state lines during one season.

However, they are not all covered under the same insurance policy.

The Short Answer

A strong custom harvesting insurance program usually includes:

• Commercial auto
• Equipment or inland marine coverage
• General liability
• Cargo coverage
• Workers compensation
• Commercial umbrella

Most importantly, your insurance needs to match how and where you actually operate.

Otherwise, a crew can discover a coverage gap after an accident, equipment loss, employee injury, or field fire.

Therefore, reviewing your insurance before harvest season is extremely important.

1. Commercial Auto Insurance

First, commercial auto insurance covers the vehicles your operation uses on public roads.

For custom harvesters, those vehicles may include:

• Semis
• Grain trucks
• Pickups
• Service trucks
• Equipment trailers

Before harvest season begins, make sure every vehicle is listed correctly.

Additionally, your insurance company should understand:

• Where you operate
• How far you travel
• Which states you enter
• Who is driving
• How the vehicles are used

For example, an operation running locally has a different exposure than a crew traveling thousands of miles across several states.

Therefore, your operating radius and states of operation should accurately reflect your business.

If your operation uses a USDOT number or requires state or federal filings, review those requirements before leaving home as well.

Don’t Assume Your Equipment Is Covered by Auto Insurance

A combine or header sitting on a trailer should not automatically be assumed to be covered by the truck’s commercial auto policy.

Instead, the equipment generally needs its own insurance coverage.

That brings us to the next important part of a custom harvesting insurance program.

2. Combine and Equipment Insurance

Your combines may be some of the most valuable assets your business owns.

Therefore, equipment coverage is a major part of protecting a custom harvesting operation.

This coverage is often written through an inland marine or equipment floater policy.

Depending on the policy, it may cover equipment such as:

• Combines
• Headers
• Grain carts
• Tractors
• Skid steers
• Service equipment

Additionally, coverage may apply to losses involving:

• Fire
• Theft
• Collision
• Overturn
• Transportation

However, equipment schedules can quickly become outdated.

For example, you may have traded combines, purchased a new header, sold an older tractor, or changed financing during the winter.

Because of that, review your equipment schedule before every harvest season.

Also, make sure the values shown on the policy are current.

Otherwise, you could discover after a loss that a piece of equipment was never added or was insured for the wrong amount.

3. General Liability Insurance

Next, general liability insurance protects your business when your operations cause bodily injury or property damage to someone else.

For custom harvesters, potential claims could include:

• A combine fire spreading into another field
• Damage to a fence
• Damage to irrigation equipment
• Damage to a field entrance
• Damage to another farmer’s property
• A customer or bystander getting injured

Unlike a farmer working only on their own property, custom harvesters regularly operate large equipment on someone else’s land.

Therefore, your liability coverage needs to match the work you actually perform.

Additionally, you should pay close attention to exclusions involving property you are working on.

4. The Customer’s Crop

One of the most important insurance questions for a custom harvester involves the customer’s crop.

For example, imagine you’re cutting a customer’s wheat.

Suddenly, your combine catches fire.

The fire damages the wheat you’re harvesting and then spreads into the neighboring field.

Would your insurance cover the damage?

Possibly.

However, you should never assume it will.

Some liability policies may limit or exclude damage to property you’re working on or property considered to be in your care, custody, or control.

Therefore, ask your insurance agent directly:

• Is the crop I’m harvesting covered?
• Is the neighboring field covered if a fire spreads?
• Is grain covered while it’s in my equipment?
• Are equipment caused field fires covered?

In other words, make sure you understand what happens to both the field you’re working on and surrounding property.

Ideally, you want those answers before the first combine enters the field.

5. Cargo Coverage

Custom harvesters often do more than cut the crop.

In many cases, they also haul grain from the field to the elevator.

Therefore, another insurance exposure begins once customer grain is being transported.

Cargo coverage may help protect the grain while it’s in your possession.

For example, potential losses can include:

• Truck rollover
• Grain spills
• Theft
• Collision
• Trailer damage
• Contamination

Additionally, you should understand when your responsibility for the customer’s grain begins and when it ends.

For that reason, ask your agent how grain is covered from the combine to the elevator.

Workers Compensation Can Get Complicated Fast

Workers compensation is another major concern for traveling harvest crews.

Unlike many businesses, your employees may work in several states during the same season.

A normal workers compensation policy generally lists the states where your business operates.

Additionally, it may include other states coverage.

However, that does not mean your policy automatically satisfies the requirements in every state you enter.

Therefore, your harvest route should be reviewed before the season starts.

North Dakota

North Dakota operates a state workers compensation system.

As a result, a normal private workers compensation policy may not satisfy North Dakota requirements for covered employment.

Therefore, if your employees will work in North Dakota, review the state’s requirements before work begins.

Most importantly, do not wait until your crew is already there to ask the question.

Wyoming

Wyoming also operates a state administered workers compensation system for certain covered employers and industries.

However, the requirements can depend on the type of work your employees perform.

Therefore, if your crew will operate in Wyoming, review those requirements before beginning work.

Again, do not assume your existing workers compensation policy automatically satisfies Wyoming law.

What Is Stop Gap Coverage?

A normal workers compensation policy usually includes employers liability coverage.

However, certain state workers compensation systems may not provide employers liability protection in the same way a private policy does.

That’s where stop gap employers liability coverage may become important.

For example, stop gap coverage can help protect your business against certain employee related lawsuits that fall outside normal workers compensation benefits.

Therefore, if your harvest route includes a state with a state run workers compensation system, ask your agent whether stop gap coverage should be included.

Agricultural Workers Comp Exemptions

Agricultural workers compensation rules can also vary significantly by state.

For example, some states provide exemptions for certain types of agricultural workers.

Other states have different requirements.

Additionally, employees of a custom harvesting business may not always be treated the same as employees working exclusively on their employer’s own farm.

Therefore, do not assume your workers are automatically exempt simply because the work involves agriculture.

Instead, review the rules in every state where your employees will work.

Commercial Umbrella Insurance

Custom harvesting operations can also face very large liability claims.

In particular, two risks can become expensive quickly:

Highway Accidents

Custom harvesting crews spend a significant amount of time on the road.

Therefore, a serious semi accident can create a large liability claim.

If several vehicles are involved or someone is seriously injured, the claim could exceed your primary commercial auto limit.

Field Fires

Field fires can also spread quickly.

For example, a combine fire may begin in one field and spread to neighboring crops, equipment, buildings, or other property.

As a result, the total claim can become much larger than the value of the equipment that originally caught fire.

A commercial umbrella policy provides additional liability protection above certain underlying policies.

Therefore, it can provide another layer of protection when a major claim occurs.

Custom Harvester Preseason Insurance Checklist

Before the first combine leaves home, review your entire operation.

Equipment

☐ Add every combine

☐ Add every header

☐ Add grain carts and tractors

☐ Update equipment values

☐ Add newly purchased equipment

☐ Remove equipment you sold

Trucks

☐ Review every truck and pickup

☐ Review trailers

☐ Update vehicle values

☐ Confirm operating radius

☐ Confirm states of operation

Drivers

☐ Submit an updated driver list

☐ Add seasonal employees

☐ Remove employees who are not returning

☐ Confirm licenses are current

Workers Compensation

☐ Review every state you will work in

☐ Review North Dakota requirements

☐ Review Wyoming requirements

☐ Confirm other states coverage

☐ Review agricultural exemptions

☐ Ask about stop gap coverage

Liability

☐ Ask if customer crops are covered

☐ Review field fire coverage

☐ Review care, custody, or control exclusions

☐ Confirm liability limits

☐ Consider umbrella coverage

Transportation

☐ Review USDOT information

☐ Confirm permits

☐ Confirm required filings

☐ Carry insurance cards

☐ Keep certificates of insurance available

Fire Prevention

☐ Keep fire extinguishers in combines

☐ Keep extinguishers in trucks

☐ Clean combines regularly

☐ Inspect bearings

☐ Inspect electrical systems

☐ Document maintenance

Review Your Insurance Before Harvest Starts

Ultimately, custom harvesting is different because your operation is constantly moving.

For example, one week you may be cutting wheat in Kansas.

A few weeks later, you may be working in Nebraska.

Then, by late summer, your employees, trucks, and combines could be hundreds of miles farther north.

Therefore, your insurance needs to move with your operation.

Before harvest starts, review:

• Your trucks
• Your equipment
• Your drivers
• Your workers compensation
• Your liability coverage
• Your customer crop exposure
• Your cargo coverage
• Your operating states

Most importantly, don’t wait for a claim to discover a gap.

Instead, review your insurance before the first truck leaves home.

That way, when harvest begins, your crew can focus on keeping the combines moving.