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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.

Topics: piggery, no-smell pig pen, static floor, pigs, imo, pig feed, compost, nutrient mixing, hawaii farming, pig housing

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

  1. 0:00 Welcome & Attendance
  2. 1:48 I Ching: The Taming Power of the Small
  3. 3:30 Storm Update from the Big Island
  4. 4:17 Visiting Purdue Farms Piggeries in the Storm
  5. 4:58 No-Smell Static Floors vs Straw Bedding
  6. 5:38 Giving Pigs Enough Space
  7. 6:20 Next Steps: More Pigs, Chickens, IMO
  8. 6:57 Island Farmers' Struggles: Flooding, Feed, Genetics
  9. 7:38 Building Mistake: Forgot the Pig Door
  10. 8:12 Advice: Stop Asking, Start Building
  11. 9:38 Poopology: Mixing Nutrients Into the Pile
  12. 13:17 Bucket-and-Hose Mixing Technique
  13. 14:53 Getting Even Nutrient Distribution
  14. 15:31 Why Not Use the Mixer?

Transcript

Auto-transcribed with Whisper. Click any timestamp to play from there.

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