Invasive species can mean wildlife as well as plants. Certainly with climate change we are seeing a new spectrum of problem weeds in crops that we haven't necessarily had to deal with so much in the past. We're also seeing some insect issues that are unique to climate change, with the hot summer winds from the U.S. south tending to blow up all kinds of new problems, whether it be crop disease or insects. That has led to a change in how we approach our vine crop rotations and the types of crops we can grow.
We just had our StatsCan report come out yesterday showing that Manitoba farmers will seed 1.1 million acres of soybeans this year. Ten years ago there were almost no soybeans growing in Manitoba—none on my farm. This year, one-third of my farm will be growing soybeans. That's the way farmers tend to adapt to and deal with changes in the environment and with different species that could be invading our environment. We try to work with what we have. We can't change what's happening, so we have to take steps to deal with what mother nature has given us and make the best of it.
Soybeans have been a tremendous success, for many reasons. On my farm one of the reasons I got really interested in it was that I wouldn't as a result need to use any nitrogen fertilizer. Nitrogen fertilizer prices are very high, and nitrogen fertilizer also contributes to nutrient loading in our freshwater lakes. So l grind soybeans. I've reduced my nitrogen purchasing by over 33%.