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IMO Smell Test, PIMO vs AIMO, Drone Spraying for Pig Feed

January 4, 2026 · by Drake Weinert

Drake opens 2026 with the I Ching hexagram for Peace, then lays out his goal for the year: breed his Guernsey dairy cow Julie with his bull for a calf due around August or September, and start getting milk. He also reviews the Pure KNF Foundation's five committees — research, micro documentary, robot and technology, membership and certification, and HFUU — and thanks members for a growing foundation.

He walks through the math on why Hawaii's pig industry is struggling: only about 5,000 sows are raised on the island, and shipping in feed costs nearly as much as shipping in pork, so it is cheaper to just import pork. His fix runs through drones: an Agras T-100 can spray roughly an acre every two and a half minutes, about 15 to 30 acres an hour, spraying crop waste back onto soil to rebuild fertility, grow crops, and feed pigs again.

Later, a hands-on IMO demonstration covers judging quality by smell instead of lab analysis. PIMO (propagated IMO) smells sour, like sourdough starter, while activated AIMO — once called IMO4 — should smell sweet like bakery bread turning into forest leaf litter. Drake has the group soak a rice ferment into water by hand first, before moving to machines.

The episode closes with a prayer and a reminder: office hours run every Sunday at 9am, with a foundation general meeting coming up.

Questions answered

  • 5:34 What's Drake's Korean natural farming goal for 2026? — Breed his Guernsey dairy cow Julie with his bull for a calf due around August or September, plus start getting milk.
  • 7:45 What committees does the Pure KNF Foundation have? — Five: research, micro documentary, robot and technology, membership and certification, and the HFUU committee.
  • 12:50 Why is Hawaii's pork industry struggling? — Only about 5,000 sows are raised on the island, and shipping in feed costs almost as much as shipping in pork itself.
  • 16:04 How much ground can a spray drone like the Agras T-100 cover? — Roughly an acre every two and a half minutes, so about 15 to 30 acres an hour once you count battery swaps.
  • 16:40 How do you actually fix the pig industry? — Go down to crops, then to soil fertility: spraying crop waste back onto soil rebuilds fertility, fertility grows crops, and crops feed pigs.
  • 54:00 Why judge IMO quality by smell instead of lab testing? — Modern science can't fully break down everything in a smell, but a trained nose can tell a good IMO from a bad one instantly.
  • 56:41 What's the smell difference between PIMO and activated AIMO? — PIMO smells sour, like a sourdough starter; activated AIMO, once called IMO4, should smell sweet like bakery bread turning into forest leaf litter.
  • 1:00:26 Should you start IMO prep by hand or with machines? — Learn to do it by hand first, so you understand the process before you move to machines.
  • 1:02:39 When are KNF Office Hours held? — Every Sunday at 9am, with a foundation general meeting coming up.

Topics: imo, pimo, aimo, smell test, drone spraying, pig feed, fertility, dairy cow, hawaii agriculture, pure knf foundation

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 New Year opener and I Ching reading: Peace
  2. 5:34 2026 goal: breeding Julie the Guernsey for a calf
  3. 7:45 Foundation committees: research to certification
  4. 12:50 Hawaii's pig industry and shipping economics
  5. 15:20 Drone spraying: acres per hour math
  6. 16:40 Fixing soil fertility to fix the pig industry
  7. 19:24 On-site IMO demonstration begins
  8. 51:35 Judging IMO by feel and smell
  9. 52:49 PIMO texture: green body vs white body
  10. 54:00 Why smell beats lab analysis for IMO
  11. 56:41 PIMO vs activated AIMO: smell differences
  12. 58:36 Soaking the rice ferment into water
  13. 1:00:26 Do it by hand before you use machines
  14. 1:01:12 Back to office hours wrap-up
  15. 1:01:58 Closing prayer
  16. 1:02:39 Sign-off: office hours every Sunday, 9am

Transcript

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

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