Kojonup farmer Neil Jackson reflects on his time on the AWI board as WA’s only rep while looking to the future

Kojonup farmer Neil Jackson says he is proud of what has been achieved by Australian Wool Innovation during his time on the board and looks forwarding to furthering the not-for-profit’s agenda during the next two years of his tenure. In 2023, the third-generation farmer joined the AWI board, a decision he attributes to a “passion for the industry”. He is currently the only WA representative. Mr Jackson runs a mixed wool and cropping enterprise on 1700ha in Kojonup, currently shearing about 2300 Merinos per year. “I’ve always been very involved in the wool industry,” he said. “I just love the product and love what it’s capable of.” Prior to his nomination, Mr Jackson was Stud Merino Breeders’ Association of WA president and World Merino Conference 2006 chair, while holding several other committee positions. “I look at myself as very much an advocate for the grassroots grower to try and ensure that levies are spent where we, as growers, can see a benefit,” Mr Jackson said. The Sunny Valley Farms owner currently sits on the AWI research and development committee, a position he said he has enjoyed given the group’s ability to “impact the day to day operations of farming”. He said he has particularly enjoyed being involved with the University of Adelaide’s biological harvesting project funded by AWI. The project investigated a new way of biological wool harvesting that enables the fleece to remain on the sheep without the need for nets until the wool is mechanically removed, unlike CSIRO’s de-fleecing process, Bioclip. Adding his voice to the dominant industry debate on mulesing, Mr Jackson said he’d love to be able to “break the fly issue” and take the flies out of farming criteria with technology and breeding. “I can just see how much value that that adds to the Australian woolgrower and it would take the mulesing debate and everything else out of the equation,” he said. “It’s something that we’re quite focused on and I’m quite keen to be involved in.” Mr Jackson said he feels his role on the AWI board is to “represent the growers”, whether that be by communicating AWI’s priorities and current objectives to growers or by taking grower’s issues to the board. He said as the country’s third largest wool producer, it is “imperative” the board has “at least one representative” from WA due to the State’s “unique and specific requirements”. “Our agricultural models are a little bit different to other States of Australia and that’s where I think the live export debate came into it — it was built into our farming operations and our farming businesses,” he said. While declining to comment on the end to live sheep export ban by May 2028, he said the impact the ban has had on WA producers in particular “indicates that we have a different structure in the way we farm”. “Australia has some of the oldest and poorest soils in the world, and WA has some of the poorest of those so what we’ve been able to do in agriculture in WA over the journey with our innovation and technology just proves that we are significant players in all aspects of agriculture,” he said. Moving forward, Mr Jackson said his dream would be for AWI to be able to make a difference on the price of wool. He said he believed a “marked change” would come from brands becoming directly related to growers — “it’s something that I’m a big advocate for”. “Brands are becoming very aware of how well we do in the nature positive aspect of woolgrowing and want to be involved with growers,” he said. Mr Jackson said as the world’s major supplier of apparel wool — which equates to more than 80 per cent — Australia has an opportunity to monopolise on this trend. “They’re looking for special stories that they can tell the consumer, and the Australian woolgrower has no shortage of those,” he said.