Wool industry advocate wants positive future for young woolgrowers

Ensuring a positive future for up and coming woolgrowers is the main driver for Kojonup based industry advocate Steve McGuire to nominate for the board of Australian Wool Innovation this year.

Mr McGuire, WAFarmers vice president and Woolproducers Australia outgoing board member, said one of the great joys of industry advocacy over the years has been meeting young people who work on and off farm in sheep and wool.

“They are passionate, capable and intelligent,” Mr McGuire said.

“My nomination for the board of AWI is motivated by the need to ensure that we can have a wool industry in which they have a future.”

Mr McGuire has spent six years on the board of WPA and has a passion for research and a desire for greater productivity gains on farm through enhanced technology.

“I have long had a passion for research and believe that the future of the Australian wool industry depends on increasing productivity,” he said.

“Most Western Australian woolgrowers are also grain growers and have seen the benefits of technology and innovation in recent years.

“The sheep industry in general, and wool industry in particular, must make significant gains in productivity to keep wool growers profitable.”

Mr McGuire is a fifth-generation woolgrower with 30 years on the farm at Kojonup.

With his industry advocacy work he has gained a solid understanding of the wider wool industry.

“I have been fortunate enough to meet woolgrowers from around Australia and those involved in processing and support of the wool industry,” he said.

“AWI must continue to provide value for levy payers.

“The current chairman and chief executive have made significant governance improvements and I note the chairman’s comments last year that AWI is closely watching it’s spending.

He said the greater and meaningful engagement with the wider wool industry of AWI under the current management was noticeable and he is keen for this to continue.

Mr McGuire reminded levy payers to register as shareholders of AWI so they can vote at the AGM, and “in the director election currently only about 40 per cent of those eligible have done so”.

He joins fellow Kojonup farmer Neil Jackson who announced his nomination for the board a few weeks ago.