Southern States Cooperative, Richmond, Va., on June 25 announced several management changes within its newly created Agronomy Division.
Effective immediately, Danny Dillon has been named vice president of agronomy technologies, and will head all efforts in the areas of precision agriculture, and all agronomy technology initiatives in seed, nutrients, and equipment. Dillon, a 38-year veteran at Southern States, has led the cooperative’s Crops Division since 2008, and most recently served in the procurement and distribution side of the Agronomy Division. He is a graduate of the University of Kentucky and is originally from Flemingsburg, Ky.
Replacing Dillon as vice president for agronomy procurement and distribution will be David Parker, who formerly served as director of fertilizer procurement and distribution. Parker has been with Southern States since 1980, serving in a number of capacities, including store manager and district manager in both Kentucky and North Carolina. Parker hails from Danville, Ky., and is a 1978 graduate of the University of Kentucky.
Southern States’ Senior Vice President for Agronomy Greg Adlich also announced that Jim Ebert has been tapped to lead the Agronomy Division’s efforts in seed and crop protectant procurement, and Keith Reid will become regional manager for the agronomy districts in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
Ebert has been with Southern States since 1987, first working in retail management in Virginia before becoming district manager on the Eastern Shore of Virginia and Maryland in 1998. He has served as regional manager in both the cooperative’s Retail and Agronomy Divisions since 2002, and is a graduate of Penn State University.
Reid is a 25-year veteran of Southern States, with a wide range of corporate assignments in both the accounting and feed divisions before moving to crop protectants in 2003. He became manager of seed and crop protectants in 2010 and director of agronomy procurement for seed and crop protectants in 2013. Reid is a graduate of the University of Richmond.
Southern States is one of the nation’s largest agricultural cooperatives, with more than 200,000 farmer-members and some 1,200 retail outlets in 23 states. It created its Agronomy Division in 2013 to “streamline the flow of crop inputs and ramp up the delivery of precision agriculture services to the farm.”