Barry Duelke

Twin Falls County, Idaho

When Barry Duelke bought his farm in 1984, it had been abandoned and was a wreck. Soil in western Twin Falls County is thin and rocky, and years of gravity irrigating row crops had washed away what little soil had been there. Neighbors told him sheep were the best way to rebuild his farm, which was convenient advice, as he brought 200 ewes with him from his previous farm in western Idaho.

After years of keeping the farm in pasture or hay and incorporating sheep manure, Duelke saw improvements in soil quality. He became interested in building soil health and over the years has experimented with cover crops that will both feed his sheep and his soil. Reducing tillage is another goal on the farm.

Duelke describes his business approach as a multi-step process. In the beginning, he concentrated on the physical plant of the farm — the soil. Next, he focused on improving his sheep to survive summering on the range, while still producing high quality wool. Then he turned his attention to his equipment line. Now that he is nearing retirement, Duelke is looking for ways to boost forage production on the farm with an eye toward keeping his entire flock on the farm year-round.

For countless years, Duelke chisel plowed the fields where the ewes wintered (approximately 20 acres), then harrowed and planted the fields to a mix of oats, beardless barley, triticale and turnips. Conventional wisdom said all that debris needed to be chisel plowed in, so the field could be corrugated and gravity irrigated. He has begun disking instead, but he concedes the heavy residue is a consistent problem.

Duelke used to have a checkerboard farm that was cut into 10- or 15-acre fields, but after installing a center pivot in 2014, he has been able to consolidate the farm into a more cohesive management strategy. “The pivot has made this place,” Duelke said. “I have more feed now than I’ve ever had in my life.” The combination of sprinkler irrigation and not tilling the pasture annually have boosted production.

A 10-way seed mix made up of five grasses (including ryegrass and orchardgrass), three legumes (grazing alfalfa, clover and red clover) and two forbs (plantain and chicory) have been planted into the pasture. The hay fields are all alfalfa and orchardgrass. His seed list is well over a page long. “I’ve tried a hundred things and failed at ninety-five of them,” he said. Orchardgrass remains one of his staple species. Duelke overseeds turnips using a fan seeder mounted on a four-wheeler each July to provide winter feed. He also uses a no-till drill to plant small grains.

Under Duelke’s intensive grazing management system, the sheep are moved every day. He adjusts how large the new grazing area is each day based on the amount of forage available. His target is to leave four inches of leaf blade to act as a solar panel for regrowth. In general, sheep are back to graze a section every 30 days.

Based on Duelke’s soil tests, his strategies are paying off. Tests from spring 2018 showed 4.8 percent organic matter and 120 pounds of nitrogen. His goal is to reach 5 percent organic matter, but he is curious to see how high he could push organic matter. Another question is just how many sheep he can carry on the farm if he should choose to give up his grazing allotment.

Duelke describes his philosophy as ‘do no harm.’ While he is reluctant to spray weeds or till, he also needs productive fields in the system to feed his sheep. “This place is better than I found it. I enjoy walking out and looking at the fields and the soil,” he said.