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JADAM Microbial Solution, IMO Grading, No-Smell Pig Pens

August 18, 2024 · by Drake Weinert

Drake opens with new piglets from his sow GG, born from a father-daughter pairing, five healthy out of eight born. He covers market weight (about 100 kilos, 220 pounds), home butchering with a .22 to the head, and his no-smell piggery, fed on free bread, milk, eggs and papayas. A 12 by 24 foot pen can raise ten pigs to market weight, but past four pigs in Hawaii triggers a state waste management plan that makes scaling up unprofitable.

He shows off a Swift UI app he built, Sausage Helper, that calculates spice, salt and sugar ratios for bratwurst, chorizo, kielbasa and other sausages from the weight of ground pork entered.

Getting into this week's Medaj segment, Drake grades sample IMO collections from Cho Han Kyu's book, explaining that Young Song Cho's JADAM method skips proper rice-based IMO collection because he never learned to identify the forest fungal aerobic microbes that make a good collection: wispy gray growth, not a yellow anaerobic bacterial mix, with red as an automatic toss.

He walks through the JADAM microbial solution (JMS) recipe: 1.1 pounds leaf mold (top-inch forest soil), 2.2 pounds boiled potato, and 1.1 pounds sea salt per 132 gallons of water. Drake skips the traditional straining socks, blending the potato and crumbling the leaf mold straight into the water, his own version he calls DMS. Ferment at 77°F for about 72 hours, 24 to 48 in Hawaii's heat, until the foam peaks with a bubble ring at the edge; once the ring collapses it has gone anaerobic and smells like death. Dilute 1 to 10 and apply about 100 gallons per acre, weekly for three to four weeks before planting. He warns against running it through drip lines since it clogs, and notes potato temperature and different starches change fermentation timing.

Questions answered

  • 6:44 What's new with the pigs on the farm? — GG had a new litter, five healthy piglets after a father-daughter pairing, with three lost at birth.
  • 12:00 What age do you slaughter pigs? — Market weight is about 100 kilos, 220 pounds, where feed-to-weight conversion is best.
  • 20:01 How do you butcher pigs yourselves? — Shoot a .22 to the head, slit the throat, hang and bleed them, then quarter and process — no blood sausage.
  • 21:30 How does the no-smell piggery work? — No smell, no cleaning — he just feeds them free bread, milk, eggs, and papayas from a local distributor.
  • 22:19 Could you scale up pigs to make it profitable? — Past four pigs in Hawaii you need a waste management plan with a plastic liner, and it's not economical given feed costs.
  • 26:35 What size pen do pigs need? — A 12 by 24 foot pen can raise ten pigs to market weight.
  • 46:48 What does a good IMO collection look like? — You want forest fungal aerobic microbes, wispy gray growth; avoid mostly-yellow anaerobic collections and toss anything with red.
  • 53:08 What's the recipe for JADAM microbial solution (JMS)? — Per 132 gallons of water: 1.1 pounds leaf mold from the top inch of forest soil, 2.2 pounds boiled potato, 1.1 pounds sea salt.
  • 55:44 Do you need the socks for the potato and leaf mold? — No, Drake blends the potato and crumbles the leaf mold straight into the water, calling it DMS, the Drake Microbe Solution.
  • 56:29 How do you know when JMS is ready to use? — Ferment at 77°F for about 72 hours, 24 to 48 in Hawaii's heat, until foam peaks with a bubble ring; once it collapses it smells like death.
  • 1:03:30 How much do you dilute JMS and how much do you apply? — Dilute it 1 to 10 with water and apply about 100 gallons per acre to soak the top quarter inch of soil.
  • 1:05:39 How many times do you apply JMS before planting? — Apply it weekly for three to four weeks before planting, ideally starting in fall.
  • 1:07:09 Can JMS go through a drip irrigation system? — Not recommended, it's gnarly and will clog lines and grow biofilm unless very well filtered.
  • 1:08:44 Does a hot potato versus a chilled one matter for JMS? — Yes, chilling cooked potato changes starch resistance, and different starches like sweet potato or cassava change fermentation timing too.

Topics: pigs, imo, jadam, jms, leaf mold, sausage, butchering, market weight, no-smell piggery, drip irrigation, boiled potato, sea salt

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 and I Ching reading: Breakthrough
  2. 6:44 New piglet litter from GG
  3. 12:00 Pig slaughter age and market weight
  4. 16:20 Sausage Helper app demo
  5. 20:01 Butchering pigs at home
  6. 21:30 No-smell piggery and feed sourcing
  7. 22:19 Scaling pigs: waste management rules
  8. 26:35 Pig pen sizing for market pigs
  9. 27:22 Finding past pig episodes on KNF Support
  10. 35:24 Peer KNF membership meeting recap
  11. 41:48 Intro to Medaj: JADAM microbial solution
  12. 46:48 Grading good vs bad IMO collections
  13. 51:40 JADAM's leaf mold shortcut
  14. 53:08 JMS recipe: leaf mold, potato, sea salt
  15. 55:44 Skipping the socks: the DMS method
  16. 56:29 Fermentation timing and foam stages
  17. 1:03:30 Dilution and application rates
  18. 1:07:09 Drip system risks
  19. 1:08:44 Potato temperature and starch timing
  20. 1:11:43 Wrap-up and sign-off

Transcript

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

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