18–20 months, South Australia has suffered tough, dry conditions, while Victoria—home to 60–70% of Australia’s dairy herd—remains highly contested for forage. Western Australia, once volatile, has been relatively stable in recent years, an important counterweight. Johnson highlights that the response is part agronomy, part analytics to encompass farming practices to retain moisture, protect soil, and carry stock across seasons, supplier coaching to adopt climate-resilient techniques in both dry and wet cycles, inventory strategies that hold the right stock in the right places at the right time as well as datadriven decisioning to price risk, allocate capacity, and protect service levels “We’re very data-driven,” Johnson says.“But data only matters if it keeps feed in a trough or a ration in a TMR wagon. That’s the lens.” INNOVATION: AI, AUTONOMY, AND ADVANCED MANUFACTURING If history is a series of pivots, the next one is already underway. Johnson notes that Johnson Group is institutionalizing innovation—a dedicated newventures lane for the fifth generation to explore tech solutions that include,AI-enabled planning for demand, inventory, and logistics, Autonomous and robotic systems on farm and in plant to lift productivity and safety, Advanced pelletizing controls for tighter spec adherence and better energy efficiency, Product adjacencies in pet and equine feeds to leverage brand and process know-how, Materials innovation that links feed by-products to green building concepts “We manufacture at scale, so productivity is existential,” Johnson notes. “Staying in front of the curve—on AI, robotics, process control—is how Australian manufacturers remain competitive.” 91 BUSINESS VIEW OCEANIA VOLUME 07, ISSUE 11 J.T. JOHNSON AND SONS
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTI5MjAx