Haley Farms

As I thought about writing this post I am remembering the hundreds of times through my life that I have heard someone say “Sometimes you just have to learn the hard way” well that applies to the day that I am having.  Let us start from the beginning of the day, it is wet nasty and cold and it is the middle of May, the kind of day that makes you want to stay in bed which turns out I should have done just that.  We always start our day here at the farm doing chores and making sure all the animals are fed and cared for so that is what we headed off to do.  The first place that we went this morning was the farm on the west side of town, we checked cows, I milked out a quarter on the cow that has mastitis, put hay in to the feeder and then we pulled the livestock trailer out because we needed to take it home because it is time to move some of the cows to the pasture.  Mike needed to get the new tracks for the track tractor home and so the livestock trailer was the safest easiest way to do that because they are hard to tie down and that way everyone is safe that they can be hauled inside, so we loaded those up and I took off in the one truck with the dogs and Mike took the truck and trailer to head home.  I was going to the next barn to feed there and then meet him at home to go on to the last couple barns.  Well I had just gotten started to put feed in for the cows and he called to tell me that he was going to be held up because someone rear –ended the stock trailer, thank goodness no one was hurt and no animals were on board just the tracks.  So I had to run home and get a different truck with the right light plug on it along with the other insurance card that was still in the house.  Our hired hand and I head over to get the trailer with the other truck so we could get the trailer home.  The young guy that hit the trailer was just getting off work, 3^rd shift and he must have been really tired because I think from what he told us he probably fell asleep for just a minute and then when he woke quick he was to close and hit the trailer without breaking much.

Now I get to the lesson part of the story, we called our insurance company to make sure that they knew about it and we worked with them and they said to take the truck to our normal place and the adjuster was going to have someone come out to look at the trailer so we could decide where it should go.  Well that young lady called back to let me know that the trailer was not covered under this policy and so the company could not help us, we would just have to wait for the other drivers company to call and they would need to pay for it.  I was so mad; our agent had told us that the trailer was covered as long as it was attached to the truck we would be covered for liability and uninsured motorists, so untrue.  It turns out that our agent or his office help were just too lazy to ask enough questions and figured we would just go on and be fine, I’m not an insurance agent so I trusted that he knew what he was doing.  The other driver said that he has full coverage and we hope that is true but we have not heard from his company yet but we have also come to find out that state minimum coverage for damage to the other person’s property is only $7500 and that will not even cover half of what this will cost, I assume, we are still hopeful that he will be covered at more than the minimum.  I understand more as the day goes on why people get sued because for the most part we depend on other people to do their job and to provide the knowledge on subjects that we can’t possibly know all about.  I need that trailer to do the work that needs to be done and get the cows where they need to be, it is not a luxury item it is a necessity for us.  

My frustration level is very high so now I will take steps to improve the situation for next time something unexpected happens, I am switching insurance agents to someone that seems to care about what I need.  It is yet to be seen about the trailer and what will happen with that, I do not need a bill like that right now but I will find a way to make it work.

I should have stayed in bed.