The temperature is unreasonably high at the moment and touching 110 degrees.
The alpacas seek out shade whenever it gets this hot and if at all possible will stand in the spray from the irrigation system to cool down.... which sounds like innocent fun but the irrigation water is full of microbes and tiny vegetable matter so this is not good stuff to be washing into your nice alpaca fleeces.....

Patches of the various pastures are drying out now and when that happens the grass almost dies before that pasture comes around for its next irrigation cycle. Bottom line it is essential to get every part of the pasture soaked when you do run an irrigation cycle.

Once the ground starts to dry out then the dreaded star thistles rear their spiky heads and appear to flourish on fresh air...the only way to get rid of them is to dig them out....it takes time but in the long run it saves a great deal of time and money. We have tried herbicides in the past but they are not very selective and the slightest wind will cause mayhem.