No-Smell Piggeries, Static Floors, and Pile Poopology
Drake opens with an I Ching reading, then tells the story of touring three piggeries on the Big Island with visitors from Purdue Farms during a storm. The original Kang farm is still running static floors after 20 years: no smell, no cleaning, no flies. Purdue's own system uses straw bedding that has to be hauled in and out and eats up carbon, problems the static floor method avoids.
Drake talks through what island pig farmers are up against right now: heavy flooding, feed shortages, limited genetics because Hawaiʻi is an island, and money and market gaps that leave new buildings unfinished. One farm built a pen and forgot to plan a door for the pigs. Drake's advice for people who only ask questions: go build it yourself.
The second half is a hands-on demo Drake calls "poopology," mixing nutrients into a pile by hand with a bucket and hose. Drake calls the method impractical for a real farm and points out a mixer sitting right there that nobody is using, while wondering out loud how to get the nutrients evenly distributed through the pile.
Questions answered
- 4:17 What did Drake see visiting three piggeries with Purdue Farms during the storm? — The original Kang farm is still running static-floor no-smell pens after 20 years with no cleaning and no flies.
- 4:58 How does Purdue's current bedding system compare to KNF static floors? — Purdue uses straw bedding that has to be hauled in and out, burns through carbon, and causes problems KNF static floors avoid.
- 5:38 Why does a static floor pig pen need more space per pig? — Static floors need a few more square feet per pig than cramped pens so pigs can stay healthy and handle their own waste.
- 6:20 What's next for the operation after the visit? — Drake is considering changes to the pigs and chickens and getting more IMO into the soil.
- 6:57 What problems are Hawaii pig farmers facing right now? — Every farmer Drake visited was struggling with flooding, feed, regulations, and getting the right equipment.
- 7:38 What was wrong with one of the new pig buildings? — The builders never planned a door for getting pigs in and out of the pen.
- 8:12 What's Drake's advice for farmers who just ask questions instead of building? — Stop asking in office hours and go build it, since you already know what you're doing.
- 13:17 Why does Drake call the bucket-and-hose method of adding nutrients impractical? — It takes people standing around dumping and hosing by hand, which does not scale to a real farm.
- 14:53 How should nutrients be added to a pile for even distribution? — Drake says to spread the nutrients over the pile by size, then hose it in, though even dilution is still tricky.
- 15:31 Why not just use the mixer sitting right there? — Drake points at a big mixer just behind the demo and asks why they aren't using it instead of mixing by hand.
KNF Office Hours is a free live Q&A every Sunday at 9 AM HST. Bring your question to pureknf.org/learn/questions or join live.
In this episode
- 0:00 Welcome & Attendance
- 1:48 I Ching: The Taming Power of the Small
- 3:30 Storm Update from the Big Island
- 4:17 Visiting Purdue Farms Piggeries in the Storm
- 4:58 No-Smell Static Floors vs Straw Bedding
- 5:38 Giving Pigs Enough Space
- 6:20 Next Steps: More Pigs, Chickens, IMO
- 6:57 Island Farmers' Struggles: Flooding, Feed, Genetics
- 7:38 Building Mistake: Forgot the Pig Door
- 8:12 Advice: Stop Asking, Start Building
- 9:38 Poopology: Mixing Nutrients Into the Pile
- 13:17 Bucket-and-Hose Mixing Technique
- 14:53 Getting Even Nutrient Distribution
- 15:31 Why Not Use the Mixer?
Transcript
Auto-transcribed with Whisper. Click any timestamp to play from there.
1:00 I appreciate that because I would think what we're doing would appeal to more folks, but I don't know. I don't know. I'm glad you're here. Don't think that you're not appreciated because you really are. The fewer the people, the more you're appreciated. That's definitely for sure. All right. Anyway, so today, today, today, today, let's get into some higher wisdom. Today. Okay. Coming from the stormy Hawaii, which if it's lagged out, it may be because we're not on the internet. Are we not on the internet? Oh, yeah. It looks like, okay, only some frames are dropping. Okay. Render lag. Okay.
1:44 We just have the computer itself is busy. The networks one. Okay. Cool. All right. So the taming power of the small, you, are temporarily restrained. It's a time for taking small steps. The hexagram signifies a time when darkness has temporarily enveloped the light. Creative power is present in the background, however, and it will come forward in time. Your responsibility in this moment is to accept the restraints quietly and remain content with taking small steps. The obstacle to success can only be removed now by gentle measures.
2:30 Inside yourself, be focused, determined. On the outside, non-action, adaptability, neutrality, intolerance are the orders of the day. Ambitious behavior is to be avoided. Think of planting seeds rather than harvesting fruit. Do not forget the inferior elements within yourself. Others in the time may only be temporarily restrained now. Maybe restrained now. Not fully removed. Do not be tempted into any engagement which will serve to unbalance you. Instead, hold quietly to the center. Take small steps until the higher power has tamed the obstacles in your way.
3:18 Yeah. Well, there you go. I guess that's the answer, right? The power of the small. The small steps. The small things we are doing together. Hey, Mark is here. Hey, man. I'm glad you are in good health. And back, at least. On the internet. So. Um. Yeah. So the small steps we are all taking together to get there to Korean natural farming. Um. Earthburst. We got some good folks in the house today. Obstacles. Um. It has been crazy rainy here. We had a, like a wild storm. It didn't really hit our place too much. But, man. The south of the island and everything. And Maui.
3:59 I don't know if you've seen pictures out of there. I don't know if it hits your. Socials. Or if you're even on those. I would get away from them personally. Um. But. Man. It's been rainy. And yesterday I had an interesting opportunity to go hang out with some folks from Purdue Farms. So a couple folks from there were visiting. Checking out the no smell piggeries. And my buddy Prem was like. You know. It's raining. Okay. Let's go. And we all got in a vehicle and went into the storm. The storm. Not the eye. The edge. The worst part of the storm. And we checked out a bunch of piggeries yesterday.
4:38 Um. Three of them. And it was very interesting to see everyone's different approach. The original Kang farm. Still there cranking away. 20 years. 20 years a farm has run. And no smell. No cleaning. No flies. A pig still there. Happy. Doing their thing. And not a single time has it been like. Cleaned. You know. Like to remove the manure. Which is always the issue. Right. Right. Um. So it's interesting to hear what Purdue is currently doing. Um. Their systems of. They're using straw bedding. Straw stuff to keep the pigs. And they basically put it in. Pig scrap on it. And they take it out.
5:19 And none of it's stable. And it uses a ton of carbon. And it creates problems in a bunch of ways. And they're trying to solve all those things. And the Korean natural farming does solve it all. Right. Static floors. It just may need a few more square feet per pig. And. And you beat the greedy capitalists. On giving a pig. A big enough house. It's kind of like. They're like. Forcing people in. They're like. They'll live in four by four square boxes. And it's like. Yeah. You can live in a four by four square box. But are you going to be healthy? Are you going to be able to deal with your waste?
5:53 And we just think of animals like. This box possible. And it's like. Um. Okay. If that's your for real for reals. Then fine. But um. How about just give them the right amount of space. And uh. Make them happy. Take care of them. They're animals. They're alive. They love. You know. Anyway. So. Uh. We'll see. We'll see what's on the horizon there. Maybe um. Some pigs maybe changing. Some chickens. Maybe get some more IMOs. Hitting that Georgia soil. Be pretty awesome. Um. So. We'll see what comes of that. It was stormy as heck. Went around. Went out with some good folks. Um.
6:36 It was also nice to see piggeries. I tell you what. Every. Single person. Is struggling. I mean. Besides the fact that it was also. It rained like. Ten inches. And everything was rivers and flooded. And like. Everything was flooded. And it was just miserable to be out yesterday. Um. I mean. It just made the ample. Farmers problems even worse. Right. Like seeing this thing where it's like. Oh my god. I'm. Struggling to feed these pigs. And regulations. And government. And art. Things. And all that. Coming in. So. Um. You know. You know. You know. Um. Yeah. So. Every farmer. Like.
7:18 I don't have the right. Stuff. You know. Picking up. Feed is hard. Feed. Feed was the big issue. Feed was the big issue. For everybody. And then genetics. Another huge issue. Because we're on an island. And then the other issue is. They're putting in buildings. But then there's not the right. Funding. And or the markets. And or. Some. Some folks we visited. They had some. A building. And I was like. Where. Where are you going to put the door? Like. How are you going to get pigs. In and out of this building? And we're like. Oh. And so. Some people built some pig pens. And never. Saw it. Like.
7:51 If you're doing Korean natural farming. Take out somebody that's doing Korean natural farming. And just think like. I know. Yeah. The internet. It's cherry. Wow. We can do them. It's like. You're not going to like. Jump in the office hours. And ask me questions. For an hour. I mean. I'm free. Or every weekend free. You're not going to just like. Take my time here. And ask questions about your stuff. No. You're just going to go build it. Because. You know what you're doing. Mm-hmm. Where's your door again? Oh. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Anyway. People. I see things. And. I love motivated people. Going out.
8:24 Doing things. Going and doing things. It's like. Ignorant motivated people. I'm not saying any of the people I visited yesterday were. There's a reason. This is on the top of my mind. But. Anyway. So. Interesting. So. I just think making things comfortable. And good. Visiting farms. I hope. Everybody gets it. That. The right thing to do. Is. Um. The right thing by our animals. Because. Good animals. And also. Ah. Anyway. Ugh. Alright. It's always fun to see other people's things going. I'm not sure they could. Critique me. And criticize what I got going to. Which is great. We all. See.
9:03 In each other. And don't see each other's struggles. As clearly as we could. Um. Um. So. Alright. Well. Thanks for the questions here. Let's get into. Poopology. Why not? Boom. Poopology. Go. No. Hopefully it's still. I mean. It's almost like you're going to be there. When. To get back. That's something. Whatever. It came like this. And then similar. Uh. Ratio.
9:48 Same. Thanks. Thanks. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. ! Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
10:34 ! ! ! ! ! !
11:30 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
12:31 ! ! ! How does he do this by himself? If he's putting water like that and shoveling us, he puts water, picks up the shovel,
13:17 puts water, puts such... How are you doing by yourself? You just dump the damn thing in the middle and mix, I don't know. Anyway, we get the machine. I don't know. This, this to me where they're mixing like this, like, as an example, it's like, this is like terrible. This is not practical at all. You don't have a neat people to stand around and do this. Yeah, just a hose and squeeze this, right? You want to get the right amount of nutrients in there, right? You want to get the... But, man, look how impractical this is. I'm just, you know...
14:03 I mean, it's cool. It's nice. It's a very spiritual thing that's happening. But, who the heck is going to do this on their farm besides like... I know the super spiritual people are like, bro, I saw it already do it. I'm like, yeah, I know, because you're spiritual. But, people that are after like... things besides enlightenment or whatever, I'm like, how you need... bro, let's go. Small steps though, right? Small steps. This is the small step and it's irritating. I just want to get it done. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, the original bucket with nutrients.
14:53 So, you just throw the nutrients in based on your pile size, kind of more... what you think you should... like, like, round the nutrients for this pile and then you just hose it after. That seems like an okay idea, but how do you get the nutrients pretty distributed? I would think you want to put the nutrients like... I don't know, more... like, there's a certain level of dilution, I guess. But, cool here. Oh, yeah, that's the technique, Michael. Look at that one. That was the down and then bring the booty into it. Yeah, so...
15:25 This way of putting it in the center and kind of just mixing it through and just enabling it not to go... and then getting an auger or a stir or some sort of thing. We have, just behind him, a huge mixer. Just behind him, just over... just behind over here, a huge mixer. Why don't we do it in the mixer, bro? He wanted to initiate us, I guess. And maybe when he does it by himself, he does it in the mixer. I don't know. If he just... He just... He just pulled out of the computer and he'd be fine, right? He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine.
16:05 He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. He's gonna be fine. Okay. It's definitely a spiritual thing that's going on here. Transformation. Sometimes it's good to think about that, right?
16:39 Like you're just going someplace, you're not even looking at the view. Are you even alive? I don't know. I don't know. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
17:24 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
18:09 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
18:54 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
19:39 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
20:24 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
21:09 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
21:54 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
22:39 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
23:24 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
24:09 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
24:54 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
25:39 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
26:24 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
27:09 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
27:54 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
28:39 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
29:24 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
30:09 No. No. No.
31:08 No. No. No. No.
32:08 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.
32:53 No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.