It was as much luck as good planning that saved them hundreds of thousands of dollars when the Gregorys barn caught fire last July. Now they re warning other farmers to learn their lesson
The 9,000 square-foot honey house and storage building that Paul Gregory and his brother Lee and their families owned as part of a farm and forage seed business near Fisher Branch, Man., burned to the ground July 15, 2008.
Today, they consider themselves lucky.
While the metal-clad building and all its contents were destroyed, nobody was hurt.
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And there s more good news the building was fully insured.
But it all too easily might have been different if
the Gregorys hadn t happened to have been working on a succession plan to divide their farm and their seed business, Interlake Forage Seeds Ltd.
The firm they had hired before the fire to provide independent, third-party asset evaluations said the 90 by 100 foot honey house they had built in 2000 was undervalued. It had cost around $120,000 to build and was insured for $262,000. According to the evaluators it was worth closer to $400,000.
That revelation prompted the Gregorys to find a new insurance company with more experience covering seed businesses and honey farms.
I d ask your insurer if they are insuring other businesses like yours, Paul Gregory says when asked for his advice to other farmers. It s real easy to put your head in the sand and say we ll never have a fire and this should be enough (coverage).
More insurance coverage means paying higher premiums, but the extra cost isn t that painful, Gregory says.
