14 Things to Do Before Welcoming Visitors to Your Farm

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Every farm has its seasons. Whether for recreational uses or agritourism, you may also be opening the farm back up for visitors. Anytime other people are permitted on your property, there are risks involved. There are also things you can do as an ag operator to limit and reduce risks and protect your property and operation. Whether operating year-round or opening back up after being closed for a season, here are some things to do before welcoming visitors to your farm:

1. Clean up your property.
2. Secure machinery and remove potential hazards.
3. Look over public areas.
4. Take care of necessary repairs.
5. Identify and clearly designate safe parking areas.
6. Determine visiting schedule and hours.
7. Create clear visitor guidelines.
8. Update and add signage.
9. Update security protocols, emergency plans, and first-aid kits.
10. Review disease prevention and biosecurity protocols.
11. Go over safety policies with all employees.
12. Check your permits.
13. Review current insurance coverage.
14. Plan regular risk assessments.

1. Clean Up Your Property

Maintaining your property, keeping it cleaned up, and keeping it free of hazards are important all the time, but are particularly important before inviting visitors onto the grounds. A lack of maintenance, having a lot of clutter, having a buildup of debris, and more can damage your property, increase the risk of an incident or injury occurring, and increase the chance you could be found liable should an incident or injury occur on your property.

By taking the time to clean up, you can create a safer environment for visitors and reduce your liability risk as an operator. Additionally, not only does this help protect your ag operation and investment, but it also helps make you a more attractive insured and is a simple way for farmers to avoid frivolous liability claims. If you are actively maintaining your property and keeping things cleaned up, the risk of being held liable due to negligence is greatly reduced.

2. Secure Machinery and Remove Potential Hazards

Another one of the important things to do before welcoming visitors to your farm is to secure machinery, remove potential hazards, and limit or restrict access to potential hazards that you need for your ag operation, and that should not be accessible to the public.

Doing so helps keep visitors out of potentially dangerous areas and away from potentially hazardous materials. Not only does this reduce risk and provide a safer environment for visitors, but it also helps reduce the chances of accidental or intentional damage to your essential machinery and materials.

Keeping public access restricted only to the areas you want to designate for public access is one of the ways to lower your risk and protect your agritainment investment. On top of that, you may be eligible for discounts on insurance premiums or qualify for extra coverage because you have made efforts to lower your risk as an insured.

3. Look Over Public Areas

After walking your property overall to monitor and take stock of its current state, make another pass that focuses on the public areas. Look over the public areas of your ag operation and explore them as a visitor. Look for problem areas and things that need to be fixed.

• Are there stairs leading up to buildings with public access that need to be replaced?
• Are there loose railings that need to be tightened up or replaced?
• Are any fences damaged, broken, or missing?
• Are all of your pathways clear and walkways in good shape?
• Are the walkways wide enough for visitors?
• Are there any areas that need to be leveled for visitors to traverse safely?
• Are all of your signs in good condition?
• Is anything else in need of repair or replacement?
• Do you see any safety issues that increase the risk of injury or incident for visitors?
• Do you have benches and shaded areas for rest areas?
• Is anything missing that would make a visitor’s experience more enjoyable and safer?

Inviting the public onto your property is one of the big reasons why you need additional liability coverage for your ag operation. Walking through the public areas of your ag operation from the perspective of both a visitor and an operator can help you identify potential risks and allow you to avoid or reduce them before visitors come onto your property.

4. Take Care of Necessary Repairs

Walking through your property has the added benefit of allowing you to put together a list of repairs you need to make and prioritize them accordingly. One of the things to do before welcoming visitors to your farm is to take care of those necessary repairs.

In addition to keeping your ag operation running smoothly and preventing downtime or damage caused by errors, making necessary repairs also reduces risks for you, employees, visitors, and anyone else on your property.

5. Identify and Clearly Designate Safe Parking Areas

One of the many considerations for whether agritainment is right for your farm can include parking. In addition to having the resources to add agritainment to your operations and handle the additional risks associated with it, you also need to be able to provide a good visitor experience in order to sustain your agritourism activities.

Your farm needs to be able to handle having visitors, and part of a good experience is making sure visitors can access your farm to enjoy the agritainment you’re offering. This can include figuring out space for their cars. If visitors will be parking on or near your property, clearly designating parking areas with signage, wayfinding, and barriers can make a big difference. Although you won’t be able to eliminate the risk of car accidents or damage from cars to your property, you can reduce the risk with designated and properly identified safe parking areas.

6. Determine Visiting Schedule and Hours

Whether you are welcoming visitors for the first time as a new agritainment operation or opening back up for an operating season, it’s important to determine your opening hours and schedule. Although you can change this as you need to, and situations may come up that affect your hours, knowing your operating schedule and standard hours of operation is key to your agribusiness. Making this information readily available to visitors:

• allows them to plan their trip
• allows you to set expectations as the operator
• can help protect you in the event of trespassing or visits occurring outside of operating hours and without your knowledge

7. Create Clear Visitor Guidelines

Creating clear visitor guidelines is essential before welcoming visitors to your farm. Having policies and rules for visitors to follow and clearly posting them protects them, protects you, protects your livestock, protects your property, and more.

Plus, should something occur as a result of a visitor not following posted rules or guidelines, you have some protection against being held liable for it. Depending on the situation and the people involved, you may still need to deal with them attempting to file a claim, but you’ll have some support and evidence on your side, as well as the liability coverage on your agribusiness insurance policy.

8. Update and Add Signage

Proper signage around your farm can help create a safer environment, manage visitor flow, and also reduce liability risk. Signs can be used to:

• Communicate visitor rules and guidelines
• Provide directions and wayfinding
• Designate visitor zones
• Mark areas off-limits or restrict access
• Clearly identify hazards
• Communicate warnings
• Display permits
• Display other important information

Effective signage, in addition to regular maintenance, cleanup, and management, can make a big difference in reducing liability in your agritourism operation. “No Trespassing” signs and clearly restricted access can also provide some liability protection against incidents that occur as a result of unauthorized access to restricted areas. This is one of the ways farmers can manage liability risks during hunting season, too.

9. Update Security Protocols, Emergency Plans, and First-Aid Kits

Regularly reviewing your security protocols, emergency plans, and first aid stations and supplies, and updating them when needed, is important. It only becomes more essential when you invite other people onto your property, whether as employees or as visitors. Not only can this help reduce the risk of an incident occurring, but it also facilitates rapid response and harm reduction should something happen.

10. Review Disease Prevention and Biosecurity Protocols

Disease prevention and biosecurity protocols are essential for protecting your animals, reducing risk, and protecting your ag investment. Not having a disease prevention plan and not regularly updating it are mistakes to avoid when insuring livestock and are serious oversights that can leave your animals vulnerable.

These are also big mistakes when you invite the public onto your property and allow them to interact with your animals. It is essential to establish safety guidelines, rules, and biosecurity protocols to create a safer environment for your visitors and for your animals.

11. Go Over Safety Policies With All Employees

Other important things to do before welcoming visitors to your farm are to clearly define roles with employees and go over all safety policies with them. All employees should know the rules and policies of the farm and should be trained in safety practices associated with them.

Everyone should also have a clear idea of their roles and responsibilities. Should something happen, every employee should know who is responsible for what and what to do. Not only does this keep everyone safer, but it also empowers employees to handle issues or unexpected situations better and more efficiently.

12. Check Your Permits

Agritourism has its own regulations. Plus, every state and local municipality will have its own regulations and requirements. Before you invite anyone to your farm, check your permits and make sure you meet all regulations.

13. Review Current Insurance Coverage

A farm and ranch annual insurance review is a good idea. It’s also a good idea to have a conversation with your insurance agent anytime there are changes to your ag operation, and especially if one of those changes is moving into agritainment and allowing public access to your property.

You want to make sure that you have the right insurance coverage and enough of it before you welcome visitors to your farm. Having your agent walk through your property with you is a good idea and can provide valuable insights. Not only will they have a better understanding of your operation, but they may also have further insights and advice on other things you can do to reduce risk.

14. Plan Regular Risk Assessments

Before, during, and after your property is open to the public, you want to be planning and running regular risk assessments. This will ensure that you are proactively identifying potential issues and fixing them before they become bigger and more serious problems.

On top of reducing risk and making your property safer for everyone involved, regular risk assessments and documentation of your maintenance, repairs, and safety improvements could result in additional benefits from your insurer. Whether via discounted premiums, access to exclusive benefits, or something else, reducing your risk as an insured pays off and can result in valuable bonuses from your insurance company.

Get the Insurance You Need For Your Ag Operation

These are a few things to do before welcoming visitors back to your farm to help reduce your risks. In addition to maintaining your property to reduce risks, having the right insurance, and enough of it, can make a big difference in protecting your ag investment.

If you need to review your farm insurance policy or obtain new coverage for your ag operation, contact Ruhl Insurance, a Division of Horst Insurance, at 717-665-2283 or 800-537-6880. We can help you get the coverage you need for your unique ag operation!

Disclaimer: Information and claims presented in this content are meant for informative, illustrative purposes and should not be considered legally binding.