A Nindigully grain grower who took out multi-peril crop insurance on his 2014 wheat crop is about to become the first Queensland farmer to make a claim for drought losses, describing the policy as "game changing" for agriculture.
Alistair Mace runs a mixed farming operation on Malanga and Balagna outside Nindigully and took multi-peril crop insurance with Latevo before planting his winter crop. After minimal in-crop rain, the Mace family are now preparing to harvest only part of the crop but say knowing that their costs would be covered by their claim was liberating.
"It's just been an amazing feeling to be able to farm with security," Alistair Mace said.
"Knowing that we will start the next financial year in the same financial position as we started this one is fantastic. The banks love it too.
"I personally think this will be the biggest fundamental change we will make to the way we are going to farm into the future."
Interest in multi-peril crop insurance has been growing over the past month and last week, dozens of farmers attended informal meetings organised by interested growers at Dalby, Condamine, Muckadilla, Surat and Nindigully.
Underwritten by Alliance, Latevo is currently the only company to offer multi-peril crop insurance in Australia. The policy only relates to broad acre winter crops and covers 16 "perils" including frost, drought, hail, insect and pest.
Far from a unique concept, multi-peril crop insurance is widely used by farmers in the United States, Canada and Europe where the cost of premiums is largely subsidised by their governments.
