Livestock insurance

Head of Livestock, Robert Wells provides answers to some frequently-asked Livestock insurance questions.

Why would a business need livestock insurance?

It protects enterprise value, however big or small, by reducing exposure to livestock-related risks that could disrupt operations or impact financial performance.

Is there a typical livestock insurance client? How would you describe them?

There’s no typical livestock insurance client—they range from global agribusinesses to small family farms. What they share is a focus on resilience, risk management, and protecting the value of their operations.

What makes a good livestock insurance provider?

A good livestock insurer is a trusted long-term partner—industry-aware, farmer-focused, and reliable in both action and commitment.

What has remained unchanged in livestock insurance over the past three decades you’ve been underwriting?

Farmers remain incredibly focused on value. To quote Warren Buffett: “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” – and farmers understand that.

Farmers are almost always in tune with the wider economy and are focused on the health and well-being of their animals.

The focus on health and well-being of the animals goes hand-in-hand with wider financial success as a healthy animal is more productive.

At Markel, we've had the privilege of working within the livestock insurance space for several decades, and our experience has shown us that farmers value long-term partnerships over transactional relationships.

They tend to be more focused on generating wealth over the long term than short-term profits. This has been part of our success in this area as Markel operates with a ‘forever timeline’.

How has technology impacted livestock insurance?

Precision farming – also known as precision agriculture – has been in use since the mid-1990s and has had a huge effect on the industry. It involves the use of GPS, sensors, drones and big data to monitor and manage farm operations with increased accuracy.

Systems and software to monitor feeding and production allow farmers to make data-led decisions and maximise efficiency.

Most recently, this has been supercharged with the use of the IoT (Internet of Things), sensor technology, AI and robotics to name a few. The shift from manual to more technology-driven processes has significantly improved productivity, animal welfare, and overall farm management. The data-led decisions enabled by these technologies ensure that farmers can optimise their resources, reduce waste and produce healthier, more productive livestock.

How do you envisage the next five years in livestock insurance?

Events can obviously change the course of direction but at the moment we see that more data-led underwriting will be needed in order to keep ahead of our peers.

This will apply to commoditised insurance offerings within the livestock insurance industry as well as for the specialist, very high-risk areas of livestock insurance such as government slaughter, some disease examples being avian influenza, foot and mouth and African swine fever.

Insurers that have the experience or capacity to write such risks - especially to scale - are rare, for good reason given the volatility involved.

We have been fortunate to have the Global Livestock (Re)Insurance Consortium at Lloyd's 9644 and our partner insurers - Tokio Marine Kiln, Liberty, Beazley, Faraday, Arch and Canopius - giving us, jointly, the largest capacity in the market on a per risk and aggregate basis.

What aspect of Markel’s operation contributes to its success in livestock insurance?

Markel's commitment to building long-term partnerships and operating with a 'forever timeline' has significantly contributed to our success in livestock insurance.

This mindset fosters trust, consistency, and resilience—qualities that matter deeply to farming clients. Combined with deep sector knowledge and a genuine understanding of the challenges farmers face, we’re able to deliver tailored solutions and stand by our clients when it matters most.

Ultimately, it’s about doing what we say we will, and being a reliable partner.

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