Mt. Nusatsum

Mt. Nusatsum

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Haying is Done

Driving through the valley this weekend it's readily apparent that haying is over for this year.  There seems to be some nice crops and I think everyone caught the good weather to get it cut and baled.   All that's left to do now is picking it up for the winter.  Someone posted a comment about whether they cut second crop hay in the Bella Coola Valley.  To my knowledge only a few people attempt it and only under the right conditions. 

The right conditions would be a good early growth and then a warm dry haying spell in mid June and having a field exposed to a lot of wind.  Then if we get some precipitation and some new growth, and you're really lucky you might be able to cut a crop at the end of July or the first two weeks in August if your field has some wind.  The problem is that it seems when the 1st of August hits, it's almost an overnight change that we get really heavy dew through the night and in general a lot less westerly winds - most years.  The dried out areas in the field in this photo is what most of the hay fields are starting to look like with the dry conditions we have now and continued this weekend with warm 25 C, sun and westerly winds.  Grizzly

3 comments:

  1. thank you for that info! I wonder if the areas on the south side of 20 grow better from the mountain run off and the soil stays fairly moist. when i was there i noticed that.

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  2. It's possible there might be some better micro climates in the summer on the south side, but the disadvantage is those area get less sun in the winter - a consideration if you have to live up against the mountains on the south side of the valley. Grizzly

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  3. I assume you live on the North side then? (-: Is there some kind N vs. S rivalry in Bella Coola? The S people told me the river floods out people up in the N. And now I hear the S has less sun in the winter. interesting.

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