Farmers and contractors may be confident that their tractors are insured against theft, but if they fail to list in-cab equipment on the policy they could be in for a shock.

And that shock could be an expensive one. It’s now not unusual for tractor cabs to contain tens of thousands of pounds worth of implement control boxes and GPS controllers, which may not be covered by their insurance policy.

“With farms striving for greater efficiency it’s often just one big tractor responsible for the lion’s share of the work,” says Nigel Wellings, MD of broker Farmers and Mercantile. Losing that tractor and its implement-specific controllers could be a major issue.

“In one instance a stolen tractor worth £40,000 also contained £10,000-worth of control boxes, taking the total claim to well over £50,000,” he says. “If those additional items are not listed on the tractor insurance policy, it’s likely they won’t be covered for theft.

“Policyholders need to declare any additional equipment they hold in the vehicle,” adds Elaine Simons of broker Farmweb.

“It’s unlikely there will be any additional charge – it just means the underwriter is aware of what needs to be covered.” NFU Mutual takes a slightly different stance, saying that although electronic equipment needs to be specified on the policy, farmers are expected to remove these high value pieces of kit when not in use.

Insurers also warn that farmers should not assume their policy covers the cost of hiring in equipment when a machine is stolen.

If you’re likely to be unable to cope with the loss of a machine, they point out, make sure you specifically ask for loss-of-use cover that also includes the cost of hiring in equipment. This cover will usually cost extra.

CASE STUDY – DARREN MILLS, GLOUCESTERSHIRE

After locking up his kit early one evening in September at his yard just outside Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, contractor Darren Mills headed home.

But when he returned in the morning he had an unpleasant surprise. Intruders had ripped down the locked gates and made off with a John Deere 6930 tractor and a low-houred JD 6910.

“After the initial shock, I set about trying to work out how I would finish off all the baling we had left to do,” explains Mr Mills. “I had assumed that I’d be covered for replacement hire tractors but it turns out that isn’t a standard feature in most policies.

“I was going to have to find £1000 a week to hire in replacement machines while the police tried to recover mine. With eight weeks’ work left to do, it was going to be pretty expensive.”

Fortunately a generous neighbour stepped in and lent Mr Mills his tractor, but another issue was about to rear its head. “It suddenly dawned on me that every control box I owned had gone with the tractors.”

NFU Mutual agreed to cover the loss of the electronic equipment, but getting hold of it all wasn’t going to be easy.

“We needed to track down boxes for the John Deere round baler, the Kverneland wrapper and the NH square baler.”

“The first two were fairly straightforward but New Holland was unable to source a controller for the 10-year-old D1010. Finally I managed to scrounge a second-hand one. Even so, the replacement boxes added £3500 to the total claim.”