Client story: Dave and Skye Ward

THIS IS HOW ACHMEA KEEPS FARMERS FARMING

Achmea Keeps Farmers Farming

Dave and Skye Ward, Spring Ponds

Achmea’s Gerard Bennett, speaks to Dave and Skye Ward – fifth-generation sheep farmers managing 7,000 Merino ewes on their property in Bungonia, NSW.

5th generation sheep farmers: on 100 years of family-farming, surviving disasters and staying insured.

Achmea Farm Insurance Specialist, Gerard Bennett, interviews Dave and Skye Ward.


Understanding the value of insurance to their business has been key for fifth-generation farmers Dave and Skye Ward.

The Ward family run 7,000 self-replacing Merino ewes on their property near Goulburn in the NSW Southern Tablelands, a property which has been in Skye’s family for over 100 years.

Achmea NSW Farm Insurance Specialist, Gerard Bennett, recently caught up with the Wards on-farm as part of Achmea’s Keeping Farmers Farming Series.

Chatting with Gerard, Dave reflected on the importance of dealing with people that understand their business, particularly in challenging times.

Those challenges have impacted growers around the country, and have included drought, bushfires, storms and COVID-19.

“They have impacted us, particularly the last couple of years but we try and surround ourselves with people who understand our business,” Dave said.

we try and surround ourselves with people who understand our business.

– Dave Ward

Insuring the bottom-line


“With our insurance, in the past we may have insured things on the farm that haven’t had any impact to our bottom line”, said Dave.

“So, we’ve gone around and made sure that everything we were insuring was going to impact the business, if something was to happen and it wasn’t going to operate anymore.”

“The main thing is getting all that clear, is it going to affect the business if it does get blown away or burnt and are you going to replace it?”

“From our experience, we’ve gone from insuring a nice old building that isn’t really going to impact the business so much, to insuring sheep and fencing that will impact our business in a negative way if something happens.”

Choosing Achmea 


Achmea is one of the companies the Wards have chosen to work with to support their farm business.

Since becoming clients of Achmea in 2016, Dave said the relationship has helped them understand risk mitigation and insuring what was important, while making sure they were not underinsured – a trap they had fallen into in the past.

“We’ve been underinsured in the past and it was a matter of going through our policies and that was a process that was made easier due to the relationship we have with our insurance agency,” Dave said.

“We really sat back and worked out what was important to us in terms of family and business, and you realise you have to prioritise things.”

“We’ve been underinsured in the past and it was a matter of going through our policies and that was a process that was made easier due to the relationship we have with our insurance agency”

– Dave Ward

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This is how Achmea keeps farmers farming.