The NFF's 2010 Innovation in Agriculture Awards were announced last night during a dinner at Melbourne's Grand Hyatt attended by more than 200 guests.

The dinner was the social highlight of this week's second annual NFF two-day congress. The inaugural congress was held in Brisbane last year.

Also picking up an NFF Innovation in Agriculture gong were third-generation North Queensland canegrowers, John Granshaw and his sons, Bryan and Terry, who won the Sustainability Award.

The Granshaws farm at Dalbeg on the Burdekin River and were among the first canegrowers to embrace green cane harvesting 20 years ago.

Since then they have reduced fertiliser and chemical use by 60 per cent, reduced soil compaction, reduced water use from 10-day to 28-day cycles - all while improving soil moisture and organic matter levels to lift production to 16,000 tonnes of sugarcane a year.

Innovative techniques such as the use of GPS-guided harvesters, laser-levelling, minimum tillage, computerised farm data recording, shielded sprayers, water recycling and designing permanent beds with a two-metre row configuration all help the Granshaws to get the best out of their land while reducing environmental impacts.

In doing so, their Barrier Reef-friendly cane farm is environmentally sustainable, and more profitable, saving on time, labour, fuel and wear-and-tear on equipment.

Phil and Lynda Snowden operate a 330-hectare irrigated hay and cattle business in the Murray Valley where they invented the Hay Cap to take the risk out of protecting hay that has to be stored in paddocks in stacks which are typically high and dangerous to cover using traditional tarpaulins.

They manufactured the caps on farm and sell them in Australia and now overseas.

The caps are placed on individual bales at ground level and secured with pegs. The tractor picks up and stacks the bales, ensuring the covered bale is placed on top.

As the haystack is built, the Hay Caps fold together creating a roof, ensuring no gaps between the bales and full coverage even if the stacking is a bit rough.

The cover is made of food grade, recycled plastic. It is flexible, rain- and vermin-proof and durable to 10 years of use.