Bill Dodd

Bill Dodd

Bill Dodd, the Ohio fruit grower who heads the Ohio Apple Marketing Program and the Ohio Fruit Growers Marketing Association, has added a new set of duties. He will take over the lead role at the Premier Apple Cooperative in June when Albion, New York, apple grower George Lamont retires.

“George has been running it since its inception in 2000, and he wants to retire,” Dodd said.

Premier is an organization of about 100 apple packers in eight eastern states organized under rules governing cooperatives that allows them to share information, Dodd said. The main activities are gathering and sharing information through conference calls.

“We talk about apple supplies and weather events,” Dodd said. “We talk about the U.S. Apple Association’s monthly storage reports and price information from the Market News Service.” The whole idea is to help growers make better marketing decisions through sharing information about crop and market conditions.

Dodd is also owner of Dodd’s Hillcrest Orchards, a 90-acre farm near Amherst, Ohio, he operates with his wife and two children. The farm produces apples, pumpkins, and peaches, operates a retail market, and offers pick-your-own apples as well as entertainment features such as a corn maze.