SHADE !! it’s hard to find in the middle of our pastures. The boys pasture only gets shade from the trees on the hillside in the late afternoon. The also get some from their barn when they are pastured in the “D” pasture. Sooo what’s a farmer to do!! We thought, well, we will have to plant some trees to make shade. GREAT IDEA… do you know how long it takes a tree to grow before it can make shade ? Too long for hot alpacas today. So …. we had to create a little manmade shade. We ordered some 60% shade cloth online from Catalog Clearance. The pastures are 50ft wide so we got a 20 X 60 piece. Then Paul attached some 4 x 4 posts to the existing fence posts. 2 8ft ones with a 10ft on in the center. At the top of the posts on one side, we attached a wire strainer from Tractor Supply.

Then we strung high tensile wire from one side of the pasture to the other between the 3 sets of posts. Considering we have two pastures side by side, the wire stretched 100ft. We had to add a center support post on the fence that separates these two pastures. We threaded the wire through the grommets in the cloth, wrapped it around and through a hole drilled on each post at the other end. Then cranked the wire strainer to pull it tight. Creating a shaded area that can be moved along the wires from one pasture to the other when we rotate the boys !!

I think the boys love it because they are using it and the slight flapping the cloth does when there is a breeze does not seem to bother them at all !!