I spent part of my youth growing up on a farm, when I was in high school and university. I continue to get my hands dirty helping my dad out on his small farm in Grey County. I'm a University of Guelph graduate in agricultural business, and up until two years ago I was lending money directly to farmers as an account manager in the field. So I've had a lot of first-hand experience working with producers, both existing farmers and new farmers trying to get into the business.
My best piece of advice for them is to talk to lots of people and to get lots of different perspectives and to come up with a good plan and test it against a couple of different individuals. Obviously there are a lot of nuances out there now in the business: you have to know international markets; you have to know production; you have to know finance; and sometimes you have to know human resources. So it takes a lot.
As for what we're doing at TD to support young farmers, we're a title sponsor of the 4-H youth leadership conference every year during the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair as the primary sponsor of that fair. We also provide over $25,000 a year in scholarships to young students looking to get into business agriculture across the country.