Arkansas Poultry Farm & Builders Risk Insurance

PGA Insurance Services is based in Fayetteville, Arkansas. That is not a marketing line -- it is where Shaed Cates lives, works, and drives to farms. Northwest Arkansas is one of the most recognized poultry corridors in the country, and it is where this agency started.

That matters because insurance for a poultry house is not the same as insurance for a barn full of hay or a machine shed. A poultry house is a working production facility under contract to an integrator, with ventilation systems, generators, and equipment that has to keep running around the clock. An agent who understands that -- because he is down the road from it, not reading about it from a call center in another state -- asks better questions and gets you a better answer faster.

Some national insurance operations run thin, templated pages that list Arkansas as one line item among fifty states. They have never walked a poultry house floor in Washington or Benton County. They do not know the difference between a broiler operation and a layer operation without being told, and they cannot picture what a wind event does to a curtain-sided house versus a solid-wall one.

Here is what being local actually gets you:

A phone call that goes fast because the agent already understands the setup. You are not explaining what a tunnel-ventilated house is. You are just answering four or five questions.

Someone who knows this region's weather risk firsthand. Northwest Arkansas and the River Valley see straight-line wind events, hail, and ice. That is not a bullet point pulled from a national weather database -- it is what happens here most years.

A single point of contact, not a call queue. When you call, you get Shaed. Not a rotating desk of reps who have never seen your farm.

Someone who will actually drive to your farm if it matters for the account. That is not something a call-center model can offer.

The PGA Program is a poultry-specific farm property program, not a standard farm policy stretched to fit a poultry house. Here is what is in it, explained simply:

Special / Open Peril Coverage Form. Most "named peril" policies only pay for a specific list of causes of loss -- if your loss is not on the list, it is not covered. Special / Open Peril flips that: everything is covered unless it is specifically excluded. That is a wider net for your barns and equipment.

115% Replacement Cost. If you have a loss and rebuilding costs have gone up since your policy was written, the PGA Program pays up to 15% above your stated policy limit to close that gap. This is a construction-cost cushion on the property valuation only -- it has nothing to do with Equipment Breakdown coverage, which is separate and described below.

2-3% Wind/Hail Deductible. Compare that to the 5-10% wind/hail deductible common on standard farm policies. On a poultry house, that difference is real money staying in your pocket after a storm.

Equipment Breakdown Coverage. Fans, generators, feeders, water systems, ventilation controls -- any sudden mechanical or electrical breakdown. Covers up to $150,000 per breakdown event, plus $50,000 in business income protection, with generators included. Your integrator contract requires that equipment to keep running. This protects that obligation.

Business Income Coverage. You set your own limit. Claims are paid on an actual loss sustained basis, with a 72-hour waiting period and no arbitrary time restriction on how long the claim can run.

Dwellings and Homes. Your coverage is not limited to the poultry houses -- the dwellings and homes on your property are covered too.

What is not covered. Birds and animals belong to the integrator, not you, so they are never part of this policy. Flood is excluded, no exceptions -- if your farm sits in a flood-prone area, talk to us about how to handle that risk separately.

If you are adding houses or building new construction anywhere in Arkansas, your existing farm property policy does not cover a structure while it is still being built. That is a separate, short-term policy called builders risk, and it is where a lot of Arkansas growers get caught off guard mid-project.

The PGA builders risk program is poultry-only, with same-day certificates of insurance for your lender, coverage in place before your first construction draw, correct mortgagee and loss payee naming, and a 30-day cancellation notice so your lender is never caught by surprise. The term runs 12 months and rolls straight into your permanent PGA farm property program at completion -- no gap, no new binder needed at turnover.

Arkansas poultry production runs through a few recognizable corridors, and PGA works all of them.

Fayetteville, Rogers, Springdale, Fort Smith. This corridor is Tyson and George's grower country, and it is the densest concentration of broiler operations Shaed works day to day. It is also literally where the office is.

River Valley poultry country. Further south and east, the River Valley carries its own long-running poultry footprint, with growers under many of the same integrator contracts as the NWA corridor.

This is qualitative, on-the-ground description, not a claimed count of farms or houses -- if you want a precise sense of density in your county, ask us directly on a call.

Fill this out and Shaed will call you back within one business day. Or skip the form and call direct -- most Arkansas growers get an answer the same day.