Can't Find Agritourism Insurance? What to Do When Your Farm Insurer Says No
Last reviewed: October 2026. General education, not insurance or legal advice.
Four years.
That is how long one agritourism operator had been trying to buy liability insurance when they put the problem to two farm insurance specialists in May 2026. The Global Agritourism Network had brought the pair, one from Canada and one from the United States, to its North America regional meeting, hosted by co-chairs Scottie Jones of Oregon and Keleigh Cormier of Alberta. The session's chapter notes record the question in a single line: difficulty finding liability insurance for agritourism after four years of trying. You can hear it at the 47:21 mark of the recording.
Four seasons of visitors who might have come, and income that might have been earned, while the farm waited for someone to say yes.
If your insurer has turned you down, you are in a very large club. In a 2025 national study of agritourism operators, the cost and availability of insurance was the single most common problem rated "very challenging," ahead of labor and ahead of marketing.
Here is the good news, and it is the whole point of this article. A no from your farm insurer is rarely the last word. Most of the time it means one of three things: you knocked on the wrong door, you knocked with the wrong file, or one activity on your farm is scaring everyone off. All three can be fixed.
THE SHORT VERSION 1. Your farm policy was built to insure farming, not hosting the public. Most standard farm policies do not cover outside business activities such as paid visitor attractions unless you add an endorsement or buy a separate policy. 2. Get the reason for every decline in writing. The reason tells you which door to try next. 3. There are five doors: your own insurer asked a different question, an independent farm agent, specialty agritourism programs, the excess and surplus (E&S) market, and event-by-event cover with insured vendors. 4. Underwriters insure the file, not the farm. A written safety plan, sign photos, training logs and an incident log turn many declines into quotes. 5. Never open to the public uninsured while you search. Pause or drop the activity that is blocking you. |
You Are Not the Only Farm Being Turned Away
In 2025 a research team led by the University of Vermont, working under a cooperative agreement with the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, surveyed 1,065 agritourism operators across the country. They asked operators to rate 28 business challenges.
Labor and time topped the list overall. But when the researchers looked only at what operators called very challenging, one problem jumped to first place. 42% of operators said the cost and availability of insurance was very challenging. Liability concerns came in at 34%. Counting "somewhat challenging" too, 80% struggled with insurance.
This is not a new complaint, and that matters. It tells you the problem is the market, not your farm.
2006: A University of Maine survey of more than 400 agritourism farms found 29% named insurance availability as their major obstacle, second only to finding the time, Mainebiz reported.
2017: New York Farm Bureau said the state's litigious climate had shrunk the number of carriers willing to cover agritourism and driven premiums sharply higher. Many farmers turned down chances to host the public because they could not find or afford the cover.
2019: In a Penn State Extension survey, 38% of Pennsylvania operators rated insurance cost and availability very or extremely challenging, and another 28% called it moderately challenging.
2025: The national study put insurance at number one.
Some farms do not survive the search. In April 2018, Tullamore Pet Farm in County Offaly, Ireland, announced it would not reopen for the season. The owners said they could not get public liability insurance at an affordable rate after steep increases in the market. The farm stopped trading with immediate effect, and the Clydesdale horse centre next door closed with it.
The point is not to scare you. It is to take the shame out of it. If an insurer has turned you down, you have not failed a test. You have run into a market that is genuinely hard, and there is a method for getting through it.
Why Farm Insurers Say No
Start with how a farm policy is built. A standard farmowners policy is designed around production: your house, barns, machinery, livestock and the everyday liability of farming. When you invite paying guests onto the land, you add a risk the policy was never priced for. As the Cooperative Extension agricultural law network explains, most standard farm policies do not cover outside business activities, so you need either a rider on your existing policy or a separate policy for the agritourism.
The trouble is that the change happens slowly. Stephanie Bittner, director of farm strategy at Liberty Mutual, made the point in IA Magazine in August 2026: farms add visitor activities one at a time, so the changes often never trigger a coverage review, and many end up running a public-facing business on a policy written for traditional farming.
Then add what is happening inside insurance companies. Four forces are at work.
1. Carriers are tightening on specific activities
In February 2026, Jeremy Staun, vice president of farm sales and underwriting at Nationwide, told Insurance Journal that carriers are tightening terms on inflatables, motorized attractions, events with alcohol and weather-exposed structures. Nationwide's own agritourism page lists what it will not insure at all: hayrides that leave the premises, inflatables, and cut-your-own Christmas tree farms.
If your farm runs one of those, a whole class of carriers may decline the entire farm because of it.
2. Courtrooms have become far more expensive
Underwriters price for your worst day, and worst days are getting worse. Marathon Strategies counted 190 corporate verdicts of $10 million or more in 2025, up 40.7% from 2024 and the most since 2009, worth about $25.6 billion in total. Premises liability, the category a visitor injury on your land falls into, hit a record: $602 million across 20 verdicts, against $134 million across five a year earlier.
Your farm will probably never see a verdict like that. But your insurer's pricing has to assume that someone, somewhere in its book of business, will.
3. Visitors guarantee claims
Richard Bryant, chief underwriting officer at Prime Insurance Company, told the same Insurance Journal reporter that losses are certain once a farm brings guests onto the property. The only question is how big. His examples were ordinary: someone slips and falls, someone tumbles off a hay bale, a visitor goes home sick, or claims to.
Small claims still have to be defended. Back in 2012, Maine Farm Bureau described to Mainebiz an apple-picking customer who was stung by a bee, sued the farmer, and settled out of court.
4. When it goes wrong, it goes very wrong
Underwriters remember Harvest Hill Farm in Mechanic Falls, Maine. In October 2014 a haunted hayride lost its brakes on a hill and crashed. A 17-year-old girl was killed and more than 20 riders were hurt. The farm later went through bankruptcy and was sold at auction, and the family's wrongful death suit settled in 2017. I cover what that case means for signed releases in do liability waivers protect your farm?
READ THE "NO" CAREFULLY Every decline falls into one of three buckets, and each has a different fix. No to the activity: the carrier will not touch one thing you do, such as an inflatable, an off-farm hayride or a bar. No to the class: the carrier does not write agritourism at all, or your operation has outgrown a farm policy. No to the file: the underwriter could not see enough to price you, or did not like what it saw. Before you do anything else, ask for the reason in writing. |
Decode the No: What You Heard and What to Do Next
What you heard | What it usually means | Your next move |
"We don't write agritourism." | The carrier has no appetite for farms that host the public. Nothing about your farm will change that. | Stop applying there. Go to an agent who can reach carriers and programs that do write it (Doors 2 to 4 below). |
"We can't cover the inflatable, the off-farm hayride or the bar." | One activity is the deal-breaker. | Drop it, keep it on your own land, hand it to an insured vendor, or insure it separately. Then reapply for the rest. |
"You've outgrown a farm policy." | Your visitor numbers or revenue now look commercial. | Ask for a commercial general liability quote, or go to the E&S market (Door 4). |
"Your loss history is a problem." | It is a pricing problem, not a permanent ban. | Show what changed after each claim: repairs, training, new procedures. Supply three to five years of loss runs. |
"We are not renewing your policy." | Often a portfolio decision. The carrier is shrinking a class or a state. | Start your search 90 to 120 days before renewal, not 30. |
Silence, or "we need more information." | Your submission was too thin to underwrite. | Build the underwriting file described below and resubmit. |
The Five Doors to Try After Your Farm Insurer Says No
Think of the insurance market as a hallway of doors. Too many farmers knock on the first one, hear no, and go home. Work down the list instead.
Door | Who you talk to | Best for |
1. Your insurer, asked differently | Your current agent | Lower-risk activities: farm stand, U-pick, tours |
2. An independent farm agent | An agent who represents several carriers | Shopping the standard market in one pass |
3. Specialty agritourism programs | An agent appointed with farm and agritainment programs | Corn mazes, pumpkin patches, on-farm hayrides, festivals |
4. Excess and surplus (E&S) lines | A wholesale broker, through your agent | Risks other insurers declined, cancelled or non-renewed |
5. Event cover and insured vendors | An event insurer, plus your vendor contracts | One-off events and activities someone else can run |
Door 1: Your current insurer, asked a different question
Most farmers ask, "Will you cover agritourism?" and hear no. Ask instead: "Which visitor activities will you cover, and on what conditions?"
Many farm insurers offer a limited agritourism endorsement for named activities. Extension law educators have documented Virginia Farm Bureau endorsements that cover specified agritourism activities, and a North Carolina Farm Bureau approach that covered some activities at no extra premium when the farm charged no admission, but required a separate policy once it charged for public access. Check what your own carrier offers today.
The lesson: what you offer, and how you charge for it, can change the answer. Describe your operation accurately and never smaller than it is. A claim on a policy sold on a misdescription is the worst outcome of all.
Door 2: An independent agent who writes farms
If your agent works for a single company (a captive agent), they can only sell that company's policies. When that company says no, the conversation is over.
An independent agent represents several carriers and can take your farm to all of them at once. Ask other agritourism operators, your state agritourism association, your Farm Bureau chapter or your Extension office which agents actually place farms that host the public. In the 2025 national study, legal and liability information was the third most requested kind of support, by 46% of operators. You will not be the first to ask.
Door 3: Specialty farm and agritourism programs
Some carriers build packages for exactly this business. Nationwide says its agents may be able to package a farm policy with commercial liability for fall festivals and haunted houses, corn mazes and on-premises hayrides, with options that vary by state. Farm Bureau Financial Services advertises visitor coverage for hayrides, hunting outings and U-pick operations.
These programs are usually sold only through agents appointed with them, which is one more reason Door 2 matters. (Companies named in this article are examples, not recommendations.)
Door 4: The excess and surplus (E&S) market
This is the door most farmers have never heard of, and it is often the one that opens.
Excess and surplus lines insurers are often called the safety valve of the insurance industry. They write risks that standard, or admitted, carriers are unwilling or unable to take. Because they are generally free of state rate and policy-form regulation, they have room to write unusual risks like a haunted hayride or a petting zoo.
The market is big and financially solid. AM Best reports that U.S. surplus lines premium reached a record $143.2 billion in 2025, its eighth straight year of double-digit growth, with more than $51 billion of it in general liability. AM Best has recorded just one surplus lines company impairment since 2003, against 311 in the admitted market.
Some E&S carriers market straight to agritainment. Prime Insurance Company says it insures pumpkin patches, corn mazes, hayrides and petting zoos, and can step in when another insurer has declined, cancelled or non-renewed the business. XINSURANCE makes a similar offer for fall festivals, inflatables and haunted attractions.
YOUR REJECTION LETTERS ARE WORTH SOMETHING In most states, before an agent can place you with a surplus lines insurer, they must make a "diligent search" of the standard market first. According to the NAIC, the most common standard is declinations from three admitted carriers, and some states require as many as five. So keep every decline in writing, with the carrier's name and the date. Those letters are your ticket through Door 4. |
Know the trade-offs before you sign:
The price is usually higher, and there may be a deductible or self-insured retention on every liability claim.
Surplus lines policies are generally not protected by state insurance guaranty funds if the insurer fails, so the carrier's financial strength rating matters more. Check its AM Best rating.
Wording varies more from policy to policy. Read the exclusions and the list of covered activities line by line.
You will usually reach this market through a wholesale broker. Your own agent handles that step.
Door 5: Event-by-event cover and insured vendors
If the blocker is one event or one attraction, you may not need to insure it yourself.
Short-term special event liability policies exist for single events such as a harvest festival or a wedding. And when an outside party runs part of the day, such as a caterer with a bar, an inflatable rental company, a pony ride operator or a nonprofit holding a fundraiser on your land, their insurance should respond first. University of Minnesota Extension advises asking outside event producers for a certificate of insurance that extends coverage to you and your farm.
Put it in every vendor contract: the vendor carries general liability, your farm is named as an additional insured, and the certificate is in your hands before they set up.
THE DOOR THAT ISN'T ONE Going without. Back in 2012, Pumpkin Valley Farm owner Keith Harris told Mainebiz he knew farmers who had run without liability insurance because of the cost, and called it extremely risky. Harvest Hill shows what extremely risky looks like. If you cannot insure an activity yet, pause it. Run the activities you can insure, and add the rest back once you have a policy. |
Build the File That Turns a No Into a Yes
Here is the part most farmers skip. An underwriter cannot drive out to see your farm. They decide based on the paper in front of them, and a thin submission gets priced as the worst version of your business, or declined.
Nationwide's Staun said what has not changed is "the appetite for well-managed operations." Farms that invest in safety protocols, signage and organized event planning still get broad, competitive coverage. That is your opening, because most farms cannot prove they are well managed.
The 2024 National Agritourism Producer Survey found that only 35.7% of operators had written safety processes and checklists, 47.1% trained staff on safety, and 23.7% used no specific liability practices at all. Nearly one in five (17.8%) had no liability insurance covering agritourism, 11.7% were not sure whether theirs did, and 60.7% did not know whether their state even has an agritourism liability law.
If you can hand an underwriter the folder below, you look very different from the average farm in their pile.
THE UNDERWRITING FILE: ONE FOLDER, TWELVE ITEMS 1. A one-page summary: every visitor activity, season dates, days open, expected visitors and revenue by activity. 2. A site map: parking, walkways, public and off-limits areas, animal areas, handwashing stations, first aid and emergency access. 3. A written safety plan and a daily opening checklist, with a few completed copies. 4. A staff training log: who was trained, on what, and when. 5. Dated photos of every warning sign your state's agritourism law requires, plus registration if your state asks for it. 6. Your visitor waiver or release, if you use one. 7. Vehicle and ride records: wagon and tractor maintenance logs, driver qualifications, seating and capacity rules, the route. 8. An animal contact plan: barriers, supervision, signs and handwashing. 9. An incident log: every injury or complaint, what you did, and what you changed. 10. Vendor contracts and their certificates of insurance. 11. Three to five years of loss runs from current and past insurers. 12. Photos of the entrance, parking and each activity area, as a visitor would see them. |
For sign wording, letter height and placement, use my 50-state guide to agritourism laws and where to post agritourism warning signs. Both items go straight into this file.
Your 30-Day Plan to Get Covered
Four years is too long. Here is how to compress the search into a month.
Week 1: Diagnose. Ask every insurer that declined you for the reason in writing. List every visitor activity you run or plan to run. Circle the one or two that keep coming up.
Week 2: Fix and document. Drop, move or hand off the deal-breaker activity, or decide to insure it separately. Build the twelve-item underwriting file.
Week 3: Find the right agent. Ask three agritourism operators in your state who insures them. Interview two independent agents and ask each one: How many farms with public visitors do you insure? Which carriers and programs do you use for them? Can you reach the E&S market through a wholesaler?
Week 4: Submit and compare. Let one agent take the full file to market, so carriers do not see your farm arrive from three directions. Compare every quote on the points below, not on price alone.
Read the Quote Before You Celebrate
A yes is not the finish line. The details decide whether the policy pays when you need it.
Check | Why it matters |
Covered activities | Some specialty policies cover only the operations described in the application. Leave one activity off, and it may not be covered. |
Limits per occurrence and aggregate | Know what one bad day and one bad season are each covered for. Schools, event clients and landlords often ask for proof of $1 million per occurrence. |
Defense costs inside or outside the limit | On some specialty policies, legal fees eat into the limit left to pay the claim. |
Exclusions | Look for animals, communicable disease, liquor, abuse and assault. University of Minnesota Extension notes that cover for diseases passed from livestock to guests can be hard to get. |
Deductible or self-insured retention | You pay it on every claim. Budget for it. |
Occurrence or claims-made | A claims-made policy covers only claims reported while it is in force. Ask how you are protected if you switch carriers later. |
The carrier | Ask whether the policy is admitted or surplus lines, and check the insurer's AM Best rating. |
Who is insured | The policy must name the business that runs the visitor activities, such as your LLC, and the people who own the land. |
For what agritourism policies typically cover and cost, see agritourism insurance: what it covers, what it costs and how to get quotes. State-specific walk-throughs are in Texas agritourism insurance and agritourism insurance in North Carolina.
Questions Farmers Ask
Why won't my farm insurance cover agritourism?
Because a standard farm policy is priced for farming, not for hosting the public. Visitor activities usually need an agritourism endorsement or a separate commercial policy. A decline from your farm insurer often means that carrier does not write the activity, not that nobody will.
Is surplus lines insurance legitimate?
Yes. It is a regulated, $143 billion market that exists for risks standard carriers decline. The differences are that it is not generally backed by state guaranty funds and its policy wording varies more, so check the insurer's rating and read the exclusions.
Can I rely on my state's agritourism liability law instead of insurance?
No. More than half of U.S. states have an agritourism liability law, but those laws limit liability for the inherent risks of farm activities, and only if you meet their conditions. They do not stop a lawsuit from being filed, and they do not pay a lawyer to defend you. Insurance does. My 50-state guide shows what your state requires.
Does a signed waiver replace insurance?
No. Courts in some states will not enforce waivers, and a parent's signature often does not bind a child. A waiver belongs in your underwriting file, not in place of a policy. See do liability waivers protect your farm?
How long should I keep searching?
Do not measure it in years. If 90 days of the process above produces no quote, the problem is usually one activity or one gap in your file. Find it, fix it and go again.
The Bottom Line
A no from your farm insurer feels final. It almost never is. Ask why, fix the one thing that is blocking you, build a file that proves you run a careful operation, and take it through the right doors. In the 2024 national survey, seven in ten agritourism operators had liability insurance that covers their visitors. Yours can be next.
And if you are still deciding whether visitors are worth all this, read why farms are turning to agritourism, and the insurance trap nobody warns you about.
READY TO OPEN YOUR GATE THE RIGHT WAY? Take the free Farm Readiness Quiz to see where your farm stands, and get my free 21-Point Agritourism Blueprint: the steps I used to turn a small, money-losing durian farm into a destination that welcomes 50 to 100 visitors a week in season. Want a second pair of eyes on your farm? Book a one-on-one consultation. |
Sources
Global Agritourism Network North America, On-Farm Risk & Insurance: What Agritourism Operators Need to Know, May 2026.
Whitehouse, C. et al., Major Challenges and Necessary Supports for Agritourism, NETTRA Conference Proceedings, 2025.
Schmidt, C. et al., Insights on Agritourism Among U.S. Producers: Evidence from the 2024 National Agritourism Producer Survey, NERCRD, 2025.
Laman, A., Agritourism Growth Drives Insurance Demand, Insurance Journal, February 2026.
Bittner, S., The Rise of the Farmer's Side Business and the Coverage Gaps It Creates, IA Magazine, August 2026.
Risk & Insurance, Nuclear Verdicts Against Companies Hit Record High in 2025, August 2026.
Reinsurance News, US Surplus Lines See 10.4% Premium Growth: AM Best, 2026.
Insurance Business, Surplus Lines Hit $143bn Record as Placement Market Shifts, 2026.
Extension Foundation, Agritourism Insurance Issues.
University of Minnesota Extension, Insurance and Liability Considerations for Agritourism, 2023.
Penn State Extension, Pennsylvania Agritourism Activity Protection Act, 2024.
Mainebiz, A New Insurance Law Could Help a Growing Number of Tourism-Based Farms, May 2012.
Farm and Dairy, New York Law Protects Agritourism, 2017.
Offaly Express, Popular Offaly Attraction "Forced to Close" Due to Rising Insurance, April 2018.
Claims Journal, Settlement Reached in Lawsuit Over Deadly Halloween Hayride, August 2017.
Nationwide, Agritourism Insurance.
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