A livestock value estimator gives you a working figure for what your animals might be worth, based on details you put in such as species, breed, age and headage. It is a starting point for thinking about how much cover to ask for, not a valuation you can rely on and not a quotation from any insurer.
What does the estimator actually give you?
The tool takes what you tell it about your stock and produces an estimated total value. If you keep 40 breeding ewes and enter their approximate age and type, it will return a figure based on general assumptions about how animals of that kind are typically valued. That figure is an illustration, built to help you think through the numbers before you speak to a broker, and it can be wrong: markets move, individual animals vary, and the estimator cannot see your flock or herd.
Nothing produced by the estimator is a formal valuation, a quotation, or an offer of cover. If you decide the figure looks useful, the next step is to take it to a broker or insurer who is authorised to give you an actual number for your policy.
Why the figure you insure for matters
Livestock mortality cover pays out if an animal dies from a cause your policy includes, but what it pays depends on the sum insured, the figure agreed as the maximum value of the stock covered. Set that figure too low and a genuine claim can be reduced to match it, even though the loss itself was real. Set it too high and you may simply be paying premium on a value you will never be able to claim, since most livestock policies pay out on an indemnity basis, meaning the actual value of the animal at the time of loss.
Livestock values move with the market, sometimes sharply between one lambing season and the next, so a sum insured set two or three years ago may no longer reflect what your stock is actually worth. This is one of the reasons a value estimator is useful as a prompt to review the figure.
What goes into an estimate like this
A sensible estimate for livestock value usually draws on a small number of factors, and the more accurate your inputs, the more useful the output:
- Species and class, since dairy cows, suckler cows, store cattle, breeding ewes and finishing lambs are valued on entirely different bases
- Age and stage, because a newly calved heifer and a cull cow of the same breed are worth very different amounts
- Headage, the number of animals you are looking to cover, since the total sum insured scales with the size of the flock or herd
- General market conditions, which shift throughout the year and between seasons
None of these on their own gives you a precise figure. Together they give a reasonable starting estimate, which is what the tool is built to provide.
What the estimator cannot tell you
The estimator cannot see the condition of your actual animals, cannot account for pedigree or breeding value above the general run of stock, and has no way of knowing what a specific insurer's policy document actually says about how a claim would be valued. Two policies can use different methods for valuing a dead animal, one working from market price at the time of death and another from an agreed value set when the policy was taken out, and that difference matters far more to your eventual payout than any estimate this tool can produce.
It also cannot tell you which diseases or causes of death your cover would actually respond to. Livestock mortality cover typically excludes pre-existing conditions and often lists specific diseases it will and will not pay out for, so the word 'listed' in a policy document is worth reading closely before you rely on any figure, estimated or otherwise. Our guide to livestock insurance goes through mortality cover, theft and disease exclusions in more detail.
Using the figure when you talk to a broker
Treat the estimator's output as a conversation starter. Write down the figure, note the assumptions you fed into it, and take both to a broker who can confirm how a specific policy would actually value your stock in the event of a claim. A broker regulated to advise on insurance can also tell you whether index-linking, adjusting the sum insured automatically to keep pace with rising values, is available and worth having for your type of enterprise.
If you are not yet working with a broker, our guide on finding a regulated farm insurance broker covers what to check before you commit to one. And if a claim on livestock cover has ever gone differently to how you expected, our guide to farm insurance claims sets out what rights you have and where to take a dispute.
Any figure this tool produces is an estimate only. It is not a quotation, a valuation, or an inducement to take out any policy, and you should always confirm actual sums insured and terms with a regulated insurer or broker before making a decision.
For definitions of the terms used throughout this guide, sum insured, indemnity, index-linking and the rest, our farm insurance glossary sets them out in plain language.