Farm insurance bundles five things most owners never think to separate: your home on the property, your farm buildings and fences, your machinery and farm vehicles, your livestock, produce, and stored feed, and your liability if someone is hurt while they are on your land. A standard home policy or a generic business pack stops well short of covering all five. Consolidated Insurance Brokers builds one farm pack around what your operation actually does.
Daniel and Lyn and all the team at Consolidated have looked after all our insurance needs for over 10 years. We have used them for home and contents, farm insurance, motor vehicle and multiple landlord's insurances. They have been outstanding in dealing with all our requests, respond quickly and in a professional manner and nothing is ever too much trouble. Highly recommended !!
We had excellent service in obtaining insurance on a newly purchased commercial property. Clayton Rowlings explained everything so clearly and very patient with many questions regarding different options. Highly recommended! Thanks Clayton.
Tracey helped me sort out professional indemnity and public liability insurance for my new business - she was super helpful throughout the process helping me navigate for the first time.
Deja provided a prompt and professional service in securing a policy that suited my requirements.
Terrific experience with Gina. I had a difficult policy which other brokers couldn't find a solution for. Gina had an option for me within a few hours. I would highly recommend.
Thank you so much Cyndie for your help/advice/service. You made the whole process so easy. Thank you again.
Jason Armstrong
Alison was a life-saver for us, staying after hours to make sure that we could get the building insurance coverage we urgently needed for a property purchase.
Debbie was always happy to help with my questions and very prompt with her service.
Hi I can highly recommend Aimee Spencer for all your insurance needs she has done a fantastic effort on keeping my insurance policy once again Many Thanks for all your work
Saskia Van Oostveen was efficient, professional, accurate, helpful and friendly throughout the entire process. Highly recommend!
A great experience with Tori, attaining some tricky commercial insurance, she was very professional in catering to your needs, whilst also having a quick turn around.
Jade was wonderful, finding me insurance coverage for a commercial property. Greatly appreciated her excellent service.
I contacted Tracey E from Consolidated Insurance Brokers for some commercial property quotes. Tracey was super helpful helpful, friendly and provided great advice. Highly recommend for all your insurance needs!
Thanks for your assistance Dylan with car insurance inquiry you have been really helpful and professional.
Shona was always available and answered all my queriers.
A1 service and happy to recommend.
I contacted Renay after she was recommended by a family friend, for home and contents insurance. She was prompt and helpful and had me all sorted in a couple of days. Highly recommend!
I needed fast transit insurance this week and Daniel Roussounis was outstanding in his immediate response and getting this organized for me. Can't recommend Daniel and Consolidated Insurance Brokers highly enough!
Second year organising insurance with Jim K., did not have any issues and a smooth transition. I recommend
May Lewong at the Emerald office was amazing. Easy to deal with and was quick and efficient.
Reena was absolutely fantastic during the entire process helping me set you our new home and contents insurance. Would definitely recommend to anyone.
Natasha as always, gives us professional, exceptional service and would recommend her to any business :-)
Insurance Business Australia Awards 2026 and Top Brokerages 2023
We work this country. Our farm insurance specialist is based in our Bundaberg office, in cane, horticulture, and cattle country.
What it covers
Quick answer
A proper farm pack insures each of its five sections on its own terms. Farm buildings and fixed structures are your sheds, workshops, silos, cattle yards, and fencing. Liability covers someone hurt on the property or by something connected to your farm.
Flood is not covered on farm property on any of the six farm wordings we have read, though on two of them, flood damage while goods are in transit is covered. We are aware of one insurer that has started building flood into its farm property cover as standard, but it sells direct to farmers only and is not available through any broker, including us.
If you grow cane or run horticulture, our Bundaberg office also places dedicated crop and hail cover alongside your farm pack. That cover cannot be quoted automatically online, so call us on 07 4331 5555.
Two more covers sit outside the five. The first is business interruption, if an insured loss stops your income while you rebuild or replace. The second is equipment breakdown, for mechanical or electrical failure that is not fire, storm, or theft damage.
If your farm also runs contracting work with larger plant, earthmoving equipment, or gear that leaves the property regularly, that usually sits better on a dedicated plant and equipment policy alongside your farm pack.
Will your farm pack pay if a storm kills your cattle?
Whether you are paid depends on the wording, not on the words "farm pack". Across the six current farm wordings we compared, some give livestock no cover for storm or rain at all, and one of those covers livestock for fire, lightning, or explosion only. Another wording covers storm only where the death comes from impact, and another only while the animals are housed in a building. The same storm can be covered on one wording and not on the next.
On two of those wordings, the most paid for any one animal is capped, at $5,000 on one and $20,000 on the other, and the automatic livestock theft limits we found start as low as $2,000. Before we place your livestock, we check which events the wording covers, what it pays per animal, and whether your best animals fit under that cap. Ask us to check yours.
Where farm underinsurance hides
Underinsurance on a farm usually hides in two places: the shed built or bought years ago and never revalued, and the machinery schedule that still lists what was paid for the tractor a decade back. The shed is still at risk from underinsurance, but not through an average clause. On the six farm wordings we hold, each item is capped at its own sum insured, so on any loss, partial or total, the gap between that figure and the real cost is yours to fund. Machinery works the same way. (Where a building policy does carry an average clause, the co-insurance guide works through the maths.)
Across small-to-medium businesses generally, only around 1 in 10 think they are underinsured, but when quantity surveyors measure the gap it averages 24%, and 31% for industrial-style buildings (MCG Quantity Surveyors, alongside ICA/Woolcott 2015 and the Vero SME Insurance Index 2025 on the self-report side). A farm shed or workshop is built the same way an industrial shed is, and construction costs have increased the same way for both.
In one Australian case, an insurer refused to pay for a storm-damaged shed, arguing that corrosion in the steel footings was the real cause of the collapse, not the storm. The Australian Financial Complaints Authority disagreed: the wind that day was strong enough to blow parts of the shed away. The corrosion was real, but AFCA was not persuaded it was what caused the damage, so the insurer was ordered to pay the repair cost plus an uplift (an Australian determination reported by insurancenews.com.au, 2022).
What actually caused the damage decides the outcome, and where a policy responds on its face, it is the insurer that has to prove an exclusion applies.
How we do it differently
We ask what a comparison site will not: whether your farm-gate sales are covered, or whether the shed you built three years ago is insured for what it costs to replace today.
The Bundaberg region has been through repeat floods and disaster declarations. Our people have seen first-hand what those events do to local properties and businesses, and that shapes our questions about your sum insured.
Who needs this
Most of our farm clients are small beef and cattle producers. We also work with a good number of cotton and other crop growers, as well as hobby blocks and cane, horticulture, and dairy operations of every size.
If a trust or company owns your farm while you run the business day to day, how you structure your policies matters as much as what they cover (see For Business Owner-Occupiers). In the Wide Bay-Burnett region, our Bundaberg office covers this country.
Common mistakes
Not telling your insurer about farm-gate sales, farm stays, market stalls, or letting groups use your land for camping or events. A private farm policy is written for private farming activity, so paying members of the public regularly on your property are a different risk. If your insurer has not been told, your policy can fail to respond to a visitor's liability claim the way you assumed.
Leaving the sum insured on the machinery schedule at what each machine cost years ago. That figure is the ceiling on what you can be paid for the item, and the basis it is settled on differs between farm policies. Check it at every renewal, and ask us which basis each machine sits on.
Sheds, silos, cattle yards, and fencing left off the schedule or valued at what they cost to build years ago. Insuring them properly usually costs less than owners assume, and finding out after a fire or storm that they were undervalued is expensive.
Assuming emergency agistment and fodder costs are automatically covered, or covered without limit, after a bushfire destroys pasture. On two of the farm wordings we hold, the trigger is fire, not flood. Where this cover exists, it is usually sub-limited by dollar amount and by time.
Buying new machinery, adding a shed, or expanding into a new activity (a bigger herd, a new crop, a farm-stay sideline) without updating the policy.
Short answers
What does farm insurance cover in Australia?
A farm insurance pack in Australia typically bundles five sections: the homestead and any domestic buildings, farm buildings and fixed structures such as sheds and fencing, machinery and farm vehicles, livestock and stored produce or feed, and liability if someone is hurt on the property. When Consolidated Insurance Brokers builds your farm pack, each section is chosen and sized separately, so the policy only protects what has been included.
Should farm machinery be insured for agreed value or market value?
Agreed or market value is often not a choice you make on the spot. The basis differs between farm policies, and your schedule says which applies, so read it or send it to Consolidated Insurance Brokers. Whatever the basis, the sum insured beside each item is the ceiling on what you can be paid, so an out-of-date figure caps your payout. Keeping that figure current is the part you control.
Is flood covered under farm insurance?
No. None of the insurers Consolidated Insurance Brokers places farm insurance with currently cover flood on farm property. We are aware of one insurer that has started building flood into its farm cover as standard, but it sells direct to farmers only and is not available through any broker. If flood is a genuine risk on your property, treat it as a gap to plan for separately.
Do I need to tell my insurer about farm-gate sales, farm stays or agistment?
Yes. Tell Consolidated Insurance Brokers if paying members of the public regularly come onto your property for farm-gate sales, farm stays, market days, or school visits. A standard farm policy is written for private farming activity, so those visitors are a different risk you need to declare. If it is not on the policy, the cover can fail to respond to a visitor injury claim the way you assumed.
How do I know if my farm shed is underinsured?
Farm sheds end up underinsured for the same reason commercial buildings do: the sum insured was set once, often years ago, and never revisited while construction costs kept rising. If your shed's insured value is unchanged since it was built or bought, Consolidated Insurance Brokers would tell you it is very likely short of today's rebuild cost. A proper valuation is the only way to know for certain.
My premium has gone up. Should I just reduce my cover, or insure the sheds for what I could build them for myself?
Consolidated Insurance Brokers hears both at almost every renewal, and both usually cost more than they save. Cutting sums insured to chase a cheaper premium leaves you underinsured. Building the sheds yourself is usually cheaper only in a quiet season with your own labour, but an insured rebuild has to cover demolition, debris removal, and a contractor rebuilding at today's rates, when the whole region is rebuilding. Ask about the excess and cover structure first.
