Hamilton Pastoral and Agricultural Society's Peter Guthrie's life membership

Mr Guthrie said he was stunned to receive the honour at the Sheepvention Rural Expo at the Hamilton Showgrounds on Sunday.

"It's something I never would have expected to get. I'm very appreciative of it but quite surprised," he said.

Mr Guthrie is also involved with the Hamilton and District Legacy group and the Warrnambool Show.

He grew up on his family's sheep farm before working on Hamilton's beef cattle research station for five years.

He moved to Horsham to work at Longerenong College as an assistant farm manager, farm manager and lecturer in animal production.

"In the early days of Sheepvention we used to bring students down here just to look around," Mr Guthrie said.

He returned to the region 17 years ago, retiring to a small farm in Breakaway Creek.

He joined the agricultural society committee two years later. He was also the Hamilton Beef Expo president for a number of years.

Mr Guthrie has been involved in Sheepvention's junior judging competitions and introduced wool harvesting to the annual event.

"We had a lot of the sheep and breeding and everything else, so I pushed it along to try and see if we could have a competition which involved shearing and sheep handling and it evolved over time," he said.

Mr Guthrie said he enjoyed Sheepvention for many reasons.

"Working at Longerenong, to come here and see the number of ex-students who are in the industry is a buzz in itself," he said.

Mr Guthrie said technology had changed the sheep handling systems and the industry in a range of ways from the use of computers, the measurement of sheep and wool and a move for tasks to be done electronically.

He said the organisers had changed over time with younger people and more women becoming involved.

Mr Guthrie said when it came to the sheep industry, the market had crashed for "most things" over the past 12 months.

"Beef and lamb prices have gone down," he said.

Mr Guthrie said the price of coarser wool, like Merino, had "held a bit", while some stronger wool, like crossbreds, was "really struggling".