Accolade takes dairy industry guru by surprise

Dairy industry guru Alan Frampton was "very surprised, but honoured" when told he had been made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to agriculture.

"I wasn't anticipating it at all but it's a very great honour," the 70-something said from his Auckland home yesterday.

Frampton is one of the dairy industry's most respected leaders, having represented it at various levels for more than 30 years.

He was a member of the Dairy Board from 1973 to 1993 and a director of dairy company Tatua from 1982, becoming chairman in 1990, until stepping down in October last year.

Under his leadership, the tiny Tatua co-operative headed down a high-tech, value-added path.

Described as a "logical thinker and a great supporter of innovative products and new technology", Frampton was inspired by a Dairy Board consultant who visited his family's Morrinsville farm in the 1950s.

He left the farm in 1958 and headed to Massey University where he gained a masters degree in agricultural science. He later completed a doctorate in agricultural economics at Cornell University in the United States.

During his academic career, Frampton was dean of the faculty of agriculture and horticultural sciences at Massey.

He left the academic world in 1983 to work as a consultant, which saw him serve on numerous committees in the agriculture sector and become the first chairman of the board of AgResearch.

Business people honoured include:

* Philip Carter has been made a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. The Christchurch businessman is managing director of Carter Group, a property development company which specialises in the preservation of historic buildings. He is a director of Maurice R. Carter real estate and property company and former director of Orion New Zealand.

* Doug Voss is another member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. The general manager of Zespri Fresh Produce, he has been contributing to the kiwifruit industry since 1978.

* Glenn Whittaker is also a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit. He has worked in the dairy industry for 41 years and was involved with livestock improvement from the mid-1970s when he became general manager of the Livestock Improvement Federation, at that time a subsidiary of the Dairy Board.