In 2013, Southern States Cooperative reaffirmed its commitment to production agriculture by creating an Agronomy Division designed to streamline the flow of crop inputs and ramp up the delivery of precision agriculture services to the farm. The entire goal was to improve the ability to provide superior growing solutions to their farmers in a marketplace full of change and new technologies.

Today, Southern States’ Senior Vice President for Agronomy Greg Adlich announced changes within the division that will further strengthen the cooperative’s offerings in the area of technology-based agronomy solutions and position the company for growth in the fast-changing world of crop production.

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, the procurement and distribution side of the new 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 has most recently 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 calls Danville, KY, home, and is a 1978 graduate of the University of Kentucky.

In other changes related to the Agronomy Division, Adlich announced the appointment of Jim Ebert to lead the division’s efforts in seed and crop protectant procurement, and Keith Reid to become Regional Manager for the agronomy districts in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Since joining Southern States in 1987, Ebert has had extensive retail management experience in Virginia and became 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. He is a graduate of Penn State University, and brings extensive field experience to his new role.

Reid is a graduate of the University of Richmond, a twenty-five year veteran of Southern States, and has experience in 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.

The new assignments are intended to strengthen Southern States commitment to providing the producer with profitable growing solutions as they develop closer relationships between agronomy field operations and corporate supply and distribution roles.