SGI Canada has admitted the insurance industry hasn’t done a good job in understanding the agriculture sector.
It’s why they have launched the Farm Business Unit. An agrologist leads the unit and staff are trained in farming and ranching operations, crop production, farm vehicles, livestock, equipment, farm buildings and other assets.
“Over the last few years, people who work for the company move farther and farther away from their farm heritage, so they don’t necessarily have the understanding of farm operations that maybe our staff would have had 20 or 30 years ago,” Blair McClinton, director of SGI Canada’s Farm Business Unit, said.
Bill Gehl, a farmer north of Regina, said that it’s a waiting game to see how much benefit the new unit has for the agricultural industry.
“It sounds like a good idea, as usual, we’re not going to know how it’s going to affect us until we get more detail,” he said.
“The best deal isn’t always about money, it has to be what you’re getting supplied as a service.”
According the 2016 Census, the average value of Canadian farmland and buildings was up 39 per cent compared to five years earlier.
Farm equipment is getting more sophisticated every year which also means more expensive.
Gehl said he is lucky, and hasn’t made any major claims, but he said he knows just how important insurance is for his farm.
“I don’t want to jinx anything but so far we have been pretty good … but we did have two combine fires this year that we managed to get put out.”
He hopes if he ever has to make a claim, his insurance company will be informed.
The Farm Business Unit is already implemented to SGI Canada’s farm customers.