WFI Insurance recorded 73 haystack fire claims in its most recent financial year, more than double its five-year annual average of about 30. Individual losses ranged from thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and haystack fire payouts exceeded $7 million over the five-year period.
The figures come from one insurer's rural book rather than industry-wide data. They arrived before the current El Niño reaches its projected peak, and ahead of a spring season that forecasters have flagged as carrying elevated fire risk.
The Australasian Fire and Emergency Services Authorities Council (AFAC) released its Spring 2026 Seasonal Bushfire Outlook on August 19. It identified heightened fire risk across northern and south-eastern NSW, south-east Queensland, north-eastern Tasmania, parts of WA, SA and Victoria, and large parts of the NT.
AFAC chief executive Rob Webb said the outlook "highlights a heightened risk of fire across several parts of the country, driven by a combination of dry conditions in the east and increased fuel loads through parts of central and northern Australia."
The Bureau of Meteorology expects the tropical Pacific to keep warming through spring, likely peaking in late spring or summer, with the El Niño event expected to persist into autumn 2027.
WFI meteorologist Peter Chan said heat and dry conditions were already compressing harvesting windows.
"There is elevated risk of bushfires in Queensland and Northern NSW through to November. Initially the highest risk area is on the plateau west of the ranges in both states, with vegetation further drying out after the dry winter. Low-rainfall thunderstorms are also expected through the second half of spring which can be an ignition source for fires from dry lightning," Chan said.
WFI executive general manager Damien Gallagher (pictured) said conditions on the ground were adding to the seasonal risk.
"Crops are surging above the fenceline in some areas, roadside vegetation is high, stubble is dense, and natural firebreaks are reduced," he said.
Hay baled or stacked with too much moisture can heat internally and ignite without an external source. Harvesting machinery adds a second pathway, as bearings and belts under heat stress combine with crop debris such as chaff, straw and dust. The Country Fire Authority advises limiting haystack size, storing hay away from machinery in well-ventilated areas and monitoring stacks regularly for signs of heating. That is practical guidance brokers can pass on to farm clients ahead of harvest.
Farm pack policies are modular. Machinery damaged by fire typically falls under the farm property section, while machinery breakdown sits in a separate optional section that must be specifically selected. Equipment added, upgraded or replaced since the last renewal, but not listed on the schedule, may not respond at claim time.
Sums insured are the second pressure point. The Insurance Council of Australia's Catastrophe Resilience Report 2025-26 found that building costs rose about 30% between 2021 and 2026, outpacing CPI growth of about 24%. For rural properties, remote access and specialist trades can widen the gap between declared and actual replacement values further. The same report found bushfire carried the highest average claim cost of any peril, at $114,888.
Common shortfalls on farm policies include stored commodities valued at outdated prices, building sums that predate recent cost increases, machinery schedules not updated after equipment changes, and seasonal production peaks missing from the sum insured. A haystack loss in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, within the range WFI's own claims show, can easily exceed a sum insured set when commodity values and rebuild costs were lower.
For brokers with rural clients, the weeks before harvest are the window to review schedules and sums insured against current values.
