How-To Library

Finding time to talk to your family about succession planning for your farm may be difficult. You may also be uncomfortable with the thought of selling your farm or handing over control to family members. Make the time to develop a solid transition plan for your farming business. You’ll help ensure that your family’s wishes are met, and emotional stress is minimized.

Operating a farm presents daily risks to farmers, employees and visitors. Proper liability insurance is necessary to protect your assets and secure your business, home, and other investments. But how much is enough? Southern States® has partnered with Nationwide® Agribusiness Insurance to provide vital information on liability insurance and how it can effect your farm and your future.

A couple hours of downtime due to equipment failure can be costly. That’s especially true for large farms with multiple, complex operations happening at once. Thermal imaging can help you stay on top of machinery and equipment performance and prevent small issues from becoming big costly problems.

Many people purchase insurance for their home or farm and then neglect to periodically review their policy or reassess their insurance needs. Unfortunately, this can lead to a gap in insurance coverage and prove costly when you file a claim and discover that you are underinsured. It's a good idea to meet with your insurance agent annually or whenever there is a change to your personal life circumstances or your farming business.

For many farmers, retirement is just not something they intend to do. While the average age of a U.S. farmer continues to climb and now stands at 57.5 years, health issues may force some operators to retire or semi-retire from the day-to-day farm activities earlier then intended. A large consideration facing aging farmers or ranchers is the health care options available to them. . . and how they will pay for these services. For many Americans 65 and older, the answer is Medicare.

Nationwide's Land As Your Legacy program helps provide security to families engaged in the agricultural community so that the land and businesses that you have worked for generations will be preserved and remain a legacy for generations to come. The program customizes estate planning for farmers, ranchers and others in agribusiness.

An important part of your farm or ranch policy is the protection it offers for damage to farm or ranch buildings and structures. These buildings must be listed on your policy to be covered.

With today's rising prices, being under-insured can create a serious financial shortfall when disaster strikes. If your property is inaccurately valued, you may not have enough coverage to fully replace your lost property, damaged equipment, supplies or inventory.

Time and experience can be life-saving when it comes to rescuing a farmer or farm worker trapped in a grain bin. But many rural volunteer fire departments responding to such instances face shortened funding and sometimes little or no experience with such operations. Those shortfalls can be deadly.

Businesses have employed an evolving range of asset tracking tools to help keep track of things like equipment and product inventory since the 1960s. Today, asset tracking is readily available to farmers challenged by managing growing farm machinery and equipment lineups.

Agritourism is a great way to capitalize on the natural draw of your landscape, connect non- farm families to agriculture and create new revenue streams for your operation. But these benefits are not without risk.