Livestock Loss: Documenting a Farm Claim Properly
Why timely, thorough documentation makes the difference in agricultural claim outcomes.
The evidence has a shelf life
Livestock claims are unlike building claims in one critical respect: the evidence disappears. A damaged roof waits to be photographed. A dead animal is removed within days, and once it has gone, establishing what killed it becomes a matter of argument rather than fact. Everything below has to be done at the time, not reconstructed afterwards.
Get the vet out before the knackery
This is the single most important step. A veterinary certificate stating cause of death, written contemporaneously by a vet who examined the animal, is what carries a livestock claim. Smoke inhalation, electrocution, suffocation after a structural collapse, and poisoning from contaminated feed or slurry gas all leave findings a vet can record and few of them are obvious to a layperson. Without that certificate you are asking an insurer to accept your account of a death nobody documented.
Records the insurer will want
Tag numbers and herd number, AIM and ICBF records, the movement and disposal dockets from the knackery, your milk records or weight records to establish the animal’s productive value, purchase invoices for bought-in stock, and breeding records for pedigree animals. Value is a common source of dispute: a heavily pregnant pedigree heifer and a store bullock are not the same loss, and only your records prove the difference.
Photograph the scene, not just the animals
Photograph the collapsed shed, the failed electrical fitting, the spoiled feed in the pit, the scorching, the standing water. The cause of loss is usually visible in the surroundings, and those surroundings will be cleared within the week because you need the yard back in use.
Do not forget the consequential loss
The animals are rarely the whole claim. There is replacement feed bought in at short notice, stock housed or grazed elsewhere during repairs, milk discarded after a power failure, veterinary and disposal costs, lost production from surviving animals under stress, and the cost of replacement breeding stock at market rather than book value. These are real losses and they are routinely absent from a first offer.
Talk to someone before you settle
Farm claims run across buildings, stock, machinery, feed and consequential loss simultaneously, and they are best prepared as one properly evidenced schedule. We do that, attend the loss adjuster’s inspection and negotiate the settlement. First consultation free — 085 268 7871.
Dealing with a claim right now?
The first consultation is free and there is no obligation. Call 085 268 7871 or send us the details of your claim.
Call 085 268 7871