The Coonabarabran sheep and cattle farmer is being honoured for her work setting up and co-ordinating Lamb Jumpers: Helping Our Farmers.

The initiative collects handmade jumpers and sends them to farmers or foster carers to keep orphaned lambs warm.

"I think everyone needs to be congratulated - those that helped but also the farmers that were willing to accept that help," Mrs Knight OAM said.

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She and husband Tony run sheep and cattle on their property 32km south-west of town.

The idea came from their own experience of drought.

"This has been the worst few years of our lives - this drought has been horrific - and the thing that has kept us sane has been Lamb Jumpers, because it's been the positive," Mrs Knight said.

"We didn't have time for it - but if we hadn't made time, I think we would have gone crazy.

"The best thing you can do for yourself is to help other people."

In the past 18 months, she said, more than 85,000 jumpers had been knitted or sewed, and forwarded to farmers.

Many other groups and people have helped, including CWA and Rotary branches; Mrs Knight is also being honoured this Australia Day for her work as a member of the Coonabarabran Rotary Club.

The program has branched out into initiatives such as supporting correctional centre inmates to raise poddy lambs, and the production of a Lamb Jumpers calendar that raised $16,000 for drought relief.

"We've saved a lot of lambs, but we've also helped an awful lot of farmers," Mrs Knight said.

"It was all that somebody cared enough to knit a lamb a jumper."