Veteran breeder Elaine Lill is Australian Braford Society's newest life member

The Coonabarabran, NSW, woman was inducted as the 15^th Australian Brafords Society life member at Beef Australia in Rockhampton on Wednesday, in what Mrs Lill described as a "complete surprise".

"I was just coming along for a ride because I've been to every Beef from day one," Mrs Lill, who made the 1000-kilometre journey north, said.

"I'm a great believer in helping young, struggling people and people with just a few cows.

"If I can give them a bit of semen and help them to get going, some will get going and some fall by the wayside, but a lot have gone on to become influential studs and breeders in our industry."

Mrs Lill established Chadwick Downs Cattle Co as a commercial operation with her late husband Stephen in 1980, recently handing the reins over to her son, Marty, and his family.

The stud was later established in 1988 and produces 180 bulls each year that are sold across Australia.

Mrs Lill's son, Marty, said he was incredibly proud of his mother and the work she had done in South America.

"In Argentina, Brafords are the second most popular breed after Angus," he said.

"In the registered Braford herd in Argentina, Chadwick Downs is in 70 per cent of the bloodlines.

"You've got to pinch yourself that we've got that much influence... it's kind of terrifying."

To date, the stud has sent more than 100,000 semen straws to Argentina.

Lifelong friend and Braford breeder Don McNamara, MCN Brafords, Bell, presented Mrs Lill with the award.

He said Mrs Lill had been responsible for driving a resurgence to the breed, which originated near Rockhampton in the 1940s, and promoting its qualities and characteristics on an international scale.

"Elaine has been involved in the breed for well over 40 years and her family has been the foundation of the introduction of Brafords internationally to a lot of the South American and Asian countries," Mr McNamara said.

"Elaine and her family have led the way with semen and embryo sales and their advocacy has helped us so much.

"She has helped start a lot of studs in NSW and the Lills have given a lot of semen away to people to get them going."

Mrs Lill said she was one of the first people to export Braford genetics to South America after an Argentinian vet visited Australia 30 years ago looking for new genetics to take home.

"We subsequently travelled to Argentina and were very warmly received," she said.

"At the time, cattle in Argentina were quite ordinary, but since then in the last three decades, they have come from being very ordinary to being very top of the line cattle.

"This is because they have invested heavily in figures, artificial insemination, embryo transfers and they're very much into data and that has really helped."

Australian Braford Society president Stuart Dingle, Chasewater Braford stud, Mount Perry, said the life membership was an appropriate gesture to recognise Mrs Lill's contribution.

"Even though Elaine is handing the reins over to her children, we don't want her contribution to go unnoticed and we feel this was a great way to pay our respects for the great work Elaine and her family have done, not just here in Australia, but also in Argentina," Mr Dingle said.

"We hope she keeps coming to events and supporting us where she can, she has always been a great person to have around and we look forward to many more years with Elaine."