When you first meet Tim Danard you are greeted with a warm smile and as you get to know Tim you start to realize how smart, driven, and enthusiastic he is about the agriculture industry. For these reasons and many more the Ontario Young Farmer Spotlight is being shone on him.
Tim grew up approximately 2.5 hours from Toronto in Kemble, Ontario on his family’s dairy farm, Rock Bottom Farming. As he grew up he worked with family milking and producing grains for feed until he graduated high school and went on to attend the University of Guelph – Ridgetown Campus’ diploma program in Agriculture. After graduating, he moved back to the family farm and began working towards his goal of taking over the family farm and increase acres on the grain side.
Now at 24 years of age, Tim has started to work towards his farming goals. To do this, he knew he had to build equity, so it would be easier to finance the costs. So – he bought a farm to increase his land base and to start building equity.
As with most young farmers, when Tim would like some guidance or advice he looks to other farmers. When asked if Tim has a mentor he said, “My dad and I work together so he’s taught me a lot. I also help another farmer, Keith Kirk, in the spring and fall and he has taught me a lot of things and always has advice.”
Tim is an active member of Grey County Junior Farmer’s Association of Ontario and his drive to succeed on his farm is admired by many other members across the province. When asked what advice Tim has for other young farmers he said, “My advice to young farmers is don’t worry about making mistakes, you’re going to make more anyways”
Thank you to Tim for giving us some of his valuable time for this article. If you have questions for Tim about him or his farm, please contact the Junior Farmer’s Association of Ontario at info@jfao.on.ca and they will put you in touch with him.
