Alan Kirton

Alan Henry Kirton MBE (1933 - July 25, 2001) was a noted New Zealand agricultural scientist. MBE can stand for: Member of the Order of the British Empire Mail Boxes Etc. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... July 25 is the 206th day (207th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 159 days remaining. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Biography

Born in Stratford, New Zealand in 1933, Kirton was raised in a farming family who ran sheep and dairy cows on a block of land in a small settlement called Kohuratahi, approximately 90km north-east of Stratford. He received his primary education at Marco School and went on to Stratford Technical High School for his secondary schooling where he was taught by Mr H C Johnson, a teacher who influenced many promising agriculturalists including C P McMeekan.[1] Stratford is the main town of the central Taranaki region, aptly named as the Stratford District. Situated directly inland from Mount Taranaki, Stratford is a rural service centre with a 2001 population of 5225. ...

Kirton attended Victoria University of Wellington for his agricultural intermediate before transferring to Massey University where he completed a BAgrSc (1956) and an MAgSc (1958). For his MAgSc he received First Class Honours in Sheep and Dairy Husbandry. While studying at Massey he received a number of prizes including the Lord Bledisloe Prize, the George Terry Memorial Scholarship, the Senior Scholarship in Agriculture (declined), a NZ Wool Board Scholarship and a Shell Oil Company Scholarship. Victoria Universitys Kelburn Campus. ... Massey University is New Zealands largest university with approximately 40,000 students. ... Species See text. ... Dairy farm near Oxford, New York A dairy is a facility for the extraction and processing of animal milk (mostly from cows, sometimes from buffalo, sheep or goats) and other farm animals, for human consumption. ... In general stewardship is responsibility for taking good care of resources entrusted to one. ... The Shell emblem known as the Pecten Shell Oil Company (SOC) is the Houston, Texas based wholly-owned subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell. ...

He then spent some time on the Massey staff working for the Sheep husbandry Department. He received a MacMillan Brown Agriculture Research Scholarship and a Fulbright Travel Grant which enabled him to enroll for PhD studies at Michigan State University. He studied under under Professor A M Pearson and completed a doctorate in Food Science in 1962. Before leaving the USA Kirton was elected to membership of Sigma Xi, the PhD honorary fraternity. Australian Sheep Sheep husbandry is the raising and breeding of domestic sheep. ... The Fulbright Program is a program of educational grants (Fulbright Fellowships and Fulbright Scholarships), founded by United States Senator J. William Fulbright, and sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State, governments in other countries, and the private sector. ... Michigan State University (MSU) is a public university in East Lansing, Michigan. ... Food science is a discipline concerned with all technical aspects of food, beginning with harvesting or slaughtering, and ending with its cooking and consumption. ... Sigma Xi: The Scientific Research Society, founded in 1886, is a non-profit honor society of about 62,000 scientists and engineers elected on the basis of their research achievements or potential. ...

Upon his return from the USA in 1963 Kirton was employed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in the Meat Group at the Ruakura Animal Research Station. In 1966 he was promoted to lead the Meat Group, and remained in this position for over 30 years until he retired in 1999. Ruakura is a semi-rural suburb of Hamilton City, in the Waikato region of New Zealand. ...

Kirton drove the need for a research abattoir and then oversaw the planning and construction of Ruakura Research Abattoir. The abattoir remains to this day a major facility for undertaking production and processing research directly aligned to the New Zealand meat industry. Kirton took an interest in animal welfare and chaired the Ruakura Animal Ethics Committee for 10 years from 1988-1997. He was at first met with opposition from parts of the industry, but as a result of his hard work those attitudes soon faded. Animal welfare is the viewpoint that animals, especially those under human care, should not suffer unnecessarily, including where the animals are used for food, work, companionship, or research. ...

Kirton died on July 25, 2001, aged 68. July 25 is the 206th day (207th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 159 days remaining. ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Achievements

Kirton was recognised world-wide as an authority on the growth, development and meat quality of farm animals.[2] His expertise was particularly focused on sheep and then goats, and he also had secondary interests in cattle and rabbits. Kirton's research was mainly focused on the chemical and dissected composition of carcasses, and the role of genotype or environment in altering these compositions. This included studying the effectiveness of analysing carcass composition through the use of measures such as potassium-40, ultrasound, and various carcass probes. Kirton helped develop more quantitive and scientific methods to help the industry in identifying meat quality to assist the selection of superior breeding sires. For the animal, see goat. ... Binomial name Bos taurus Linnaeus, 1758 Cattle (often called cows in vernacular and contemporary usage, or kye as the Scots plural of cou) are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. ... Genera Pentalagus Bunolagus Nesolagus Romerolagus Brachylagus Sylvilagus Oryctolagus Poelagus Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae, found in many parts of the world. ... The genotype is the specific genetic genome of an individual, in the form of DNA. It is basically ones DNA including the influence of environmental variation, it codes for the phenotype of that individual. ... General Name, Symbol, Number potassium, K, 19 Chemical series alkali metals Group, Period, Block 1, 4, s Appearance silvery white Atomic mass 39. ... Ultrasound is sound with a frequency greater than the upper limit of human hearing, this limit being approximately 20 kilohertz (20,000 hertz). ...

Kirton dispelled a number of myths that prevailed in the industry, showing that

• Meat from old ram lambs does not have a flavour odour problem
• The shape of a sheep carcass has little effect on meat yield or quality
• White veal production does not require the absence of light or iron
• Goats are an excellent source of lean red meat.

Kirton's leadership was influential in the number of farmers choosing to no longer castrate their rams or even remove the tails, so improving meat yield without compromising meat quality, and improving animal welfare.[3] Veal is a meat produced from calves. ... Castration, gelding, neutering, orchiectomy or orchidectomy is any action, surgical or otherwise, by which a biological male loses use of the testes. ...

Kirton produced over 290 publications for the Meat Science scientific literature, 212 of which he was senior author, and contributed 9 chapters to a number of books at the forefront of the industry. He was a committee member, secretary-treasurer, vice-president, and an honorary life member of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production (1975), a committee member, vice-president, president (1969-70, 1970-71) and (1991-92, 1992-93) of the New Zealand Association of Scientists, and a committee member and a president (1980-81) of the Waikato Section of the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural Science and a council member and president (1987-88) of the national body. Waikato is the name of a region in the North Island of New Zealand. ...

Awards

Kirton was the recipient of a number of a prestigious awards for his work:

• Received the Fulbright Travel Grant 1959
• Awarded the Research Medal of New Zealand Association of Scientists 1972
• Elected Fellow of New Zealand Institute of Agricultural Science 1975
• Received a DSc from Massey University for his work in the field of animal growth 1984
• Awarded the Marsden Medal of the New Zealand Association of Scientists 1991
• Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand 1991
• Awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List 1994
• Awarded the Hutton Medal by the Royal Society of New Zealand for Science and Technological Merit in Animal Sciences 1998
• Awarded the Doug Campbell Award by the New Zealand Institute of Agricultural Science for Services to the Institute 1999.

The Royal Society of New Zealand was founded in 1851 and is the premier learned society in New Zealand. ... Commanders Badge of the Order of the British Empire (Military division) The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by King George V. The Order includes five classes in civil and military divisions; in decreasing order of seniority... The honours system of the United Kingdom is a means of rewarding personal bravery, achievement or service to the country. ...

See also

References

• Royal Society of New Zealand: Alan Henry Kirton
• New ZealandSociety of Animal Production: Alan Henry Kirton (nomination for life membership)