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Silage From Corn vs Bananas, Fortified Bread, Chicken Economics

April 13, 2025 · by Drake Weinert

Drake opens with farm news: a beef cow survived a rough birth after help from the crew, and he's hacking an AC unit with a D1 Mini to build a cheap meat-chilling room. He also walks through 18 years of YouTube stats: about 18,000 subscribers and roughly $5,700 in total ad revenue, with super chats making up far more of his income than ads ever have.

The bulk of the episode replays 2017 footage of Master Cho on the couch at Master Lee's farm. Cho talks about dehydrating and grinding taro leaf into bread flour, then fortifying it further with mugwort and noni. A viewer notes that commercial L-cysteine dough conditioner is often sourced from human hair, prompting talk of fish amino acid as an alternative protein additive.

Cho also covers silage: he plants corn at 1.8 by 1.8 meters, about 81 plants per plot, yielding roughly 162 kg of stalk, with five harvests a year possible in Hawaiʻi. He shows good versus bad silage side by side, good smells sour or sweet like alcohol, bad smells like puke or dirt, usually from a hole letting in moisture. Drake adds his own experience: bananas are easier to grow than corn for silage, but need a heavy-duty chipper to shred the stalks.

Drake closes with a reality check on chicken economics. After running the numbers for 400 chickens fed on homegrown silage, corn or otherwise, it worked out to about $2 a day or $2 an hour once land, labor, and inputs were counted. He shares advice from a former employer, now Montana's governor, sell the product before you build it, and urges farmers to run their own spreadsheets before scaling up.

Questions answered

  • 7:00 Beef cow had a rough birth—will she and the calf be OK? — Both survived after Drake and helpers assisted the birth; she's healthy, still nursing, but won't let herself be milked in the stanchion.
  • 7:44 How many YouTube subscribers and how much has the channel earned in 18 years? — About 18,000 subscribers and roughly $5,700 in total ad revenue over 18 years; super chats matter far more than ads.
  • 21:41 How do you fortify bread with taro leaf? — Dehydrate taro leaf, grind it into powder, and mix it into bread dough for extra protein, Master Cho says.
  • 23:51 What else can you add to fortified bread besides taro? — Master Cho suggests mugwort and even noni for extra fortification, on top of the taro leaf powder.
  • 30:52 Where does the L-cysteine in store bread actually come from? — A viewer noted commercial L-cysteine dough conditioner is often made from gathered human hair.
  • 30:08 Should LAB collection sit in light or dark? — A little light helps sterilize and keeps it near room temperature, which LAB likes; airflow helps too since LAB is facultatively anaerobic.
  • 39:53 How do you tell good silage from bad silage? — Good silage smells sour or sweet like alcohol; bad silage smells like puke or dirt, often from moisture getting in through a hole.
  • 42:42 How densely should you plant corn for silage in Hawaii? — Master Cho plants corn 1.8 by 1.8 meters apart, about 81 plants per plot, and gets roughly 162 kg of stalk, with five harvests a year in Hawaii.
  • 45:35 Is corn or banana better for homemade silage? — Drake found bananas easier to grow than corn for silage, but you need a heavy-duty chipper to shred the stalks efficiently.
  • 48:56 Does feeding 400 chickens on silage actually pay off? — After running the spreadsheet, Drake found it worked out to roughly $2 a day or $2 an hour once labor, land, and inputs were counted.
  • 52:09 How much could you earn selling eggs from 400 chickens? — At 75% lay rate that's 300 eggs, or 25 dozen a day, which at $10 a dozen is about $250 gross before costs.
  • 56:33 What's the best way to test a new farm business idea? — Sell the product before you build it: put up a flyer with a price and see if anyone calls before investing in the setup.

Topics: silage, banana, corn, lab, yogurt, taro leaf, mugwort, noni, fortified bread, chicken economics, master cho

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 Intro: don't be a slave to your phone
  2. 4:45 Viewers checking in
  3. 5:31 Farm news: cows and the AC hack
  4. 7:44 YouTube stats after 18 years
  5. 19:25 Into Master Cho's 2017 footage
  6. 21:41 Taro leaf bread with Master Cho
  7. 30:08 LAB: light vs dark placement
  8. 33:36 Yogurt fermentation tips
  9. 37:51 Why silage matters
  10. 39:53 Good vs bad silage: smell and moisture
  11. 42:42 Corn spacing for silage in Hawaii
  12. 45:35 Banana silage and chipper machines
  13. 48:56 Chicken math: feeding 400 birds
  14. 50:15 Reality check: does it pencil out?
  15. 56:33 Business lesson: sell before you build
  16. 1:01:28 18 years of YouTube, reflecting
  17. 1:04:11 Sign-off

Transcript

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