Check your cover before the birds go into rear

Published on : 4 Sep 2026

Ensure you are not exposed if anything happens whilst your pullets are in rear, because the cover most producers assume they have does not start until the birds are in lay.

Pullets are not your property in the eyes of an insurer until they arrive at your shed, however long ago you paid for them, so a flock lost in rear to avian influenza, salmonella or Newcastle disease can leave a producer with no claim to make and nothing to fall back on beyond the supply agreement. The birds sit on somebody else’s site, under somebody else’s policy, for the whole of the rear period, and that is the point at which most farms are exposed without realising it.

The gap catches people out because a farm combined policy reads as though it covers the birds, and it does, once they are yours and standing in your shed. The business interruption section works the same way, responding where an insured peril damages your own property and stops the business, so a shed standing empty because a flock never turned up, with nothing whatsoever wrong at your farm, does not trigger it.
Producers who assume the policy will pick up an empty flock are usually reading the business interruption wording without the material damage proviso that sits in front of it.

The exposure is bigger than the value of the birds. The money is already committed, the shed is standing empty on the date the flock should have arrived, the fixed costs carry on, the packer still expects the volume, and replacement birds cannot be found at short notice with free range availability booked through to late 2027 and into 2028. A flock lost in rear can leave a unit empty for months rather than weeks, and it is that empty period, not the price of the pullets, that does the real damage to the cashflow.

It is worth putting the questions to your insurance company in plain terms before the next placement. Ask whether your own stock is insured whilst it sits on the rearer’s site, what that cover responds to and whether disease on the rearing unit is included, up to what value the birds are insured, whether there is anything in the policy that pays towards lost production whilst you wait for a replacement flock, and how long any such payment runs. Ask your rearer the same questions about their own policy, because their cover will be written around their business and not around your investment.

The supply agreement deserves the same reading. Most pullet contracts carry a clause excusing non-delivery where the failure sits outside the rearer’s control, some cap liability, and a good many say nothing about what happens to money already paid or to a producer’s place in the queue when a flock is lost. Getting that in writing before the birds are placed is a good deal easier than arguing it afterwards.

Speak to your insurance company and make sure you are covered when the birds are in rear, because we are seeing more producers lose out through no fault of their own.