Everything farmers need to know about livestock insurance — coverage types, costs, providers, and how to get the right cover for your operation.
Why Livestock Insurance Matters in New Zealand
New Zealand farming is a high-value, high-risk business. Your livestock are not just animals — they are capital assets, production units, and the foundation of your farming operation. A single disease outbreak, a cyclone, or a road accident can wipe out years of breeding investment in hours.
Yet the majority of livestock farmers carry inadequate insurance or none at all. This guide covers everything you need to know about protecting your animals.
The Key Coverage Types
Mortality Cover is the foundation of livestock insurance. It pays you the agreed or market value of your animal if it dies from a covered cause. Covered causes typically include accidental death, electrocution, drowning, fire, and specified weather events.
Disease & Illness Cover compensates farmers when livestock contract notifiable diseases or serious illness. Mycoplasma bovis highlighted this gap for dairy farmers — many discovered too late that their standard farm policy didn't cover forced culling costs.
Transit Insurance covers your animals during transport to saleyards, processing plants, or agricultural shows. Transit deaths are more common than most farmers realise.
Natural Disaster Cover is increasingly important in New Zealand. Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 killed thousands of livestock and highlighted how standard policies often exclude weather events.
The Major Providers
FMG (Farmers Mutual Group) dominates the NZ rural insurance market with approximately 65-70% market share. They offer specialist livestock policies designed specifically for local farming conditions, including post-shearing exposure cover for sheep and velvet stag cover for deer farmers.
Aon is a global broker with a strong NZ rural team. They can access multiple underwriters and are good for farmers with complex or unusual coverage needs.
Gallagher Insurance specialises in unusual and exotic livestock, including alpacas, llamas, rare breeds, and high-value stud animals.
NZI (New Zealand Insurance) offers competitive farm pack pricing with livestock cover bundled into comprehensive farm policies.
How to Get the Right Cover
The advisers we connect you with are licensed NZ professionals who specialise in rural and livestock insurance.
