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Chicken Roost Cleaning, RTK GPS Precision Ag, Jadam History

Drake opens 2024 with the Pure KNF Foundation's 2023 annual report: 49 office hours episodes (224 total archived), averaging 74 concurrent viewers and 4,852 hours watched for the year, plus 56,000-plus lifetime views. KNF Support logged 40 new questions and 41 new answers in 2023, with 580 registered members and 1.8 million page views total.

The Agras T40 spray drone flew 274 short flights (about 15 hours in the air), sprayed 1,300 gallons, and treated 95 acres researching dosage rates for banana bunchy top, pasture restoration, and orchard health. The foundation also produced four 15-minute micro-documentaries, launched associate membership, and ran a Maui apprentice program that trained 25 people, with 10 completing level two and 9 completing level three mentorship — all on a $4,500 budget spent at zero cost through volunteer work.

Drake shows off a mower autopilot project in progress: a BeagleBone Blue flashed with ArduPilot's ArduRover firmware, RTK GPS antennas spaced 30 centimeters apart, and a Pi Pico-driven simulator with joystick levers standing in for a zero-turn mower. He also digs up his old Jadam certificates — Ultra Low Cost Organic Planner (ULOP) and Ultra Low Cost Agriculture Technology Planner (ULAP), both from 2016.

Live questions: a viewer asks whether KNF chicken roosts need cleaning underneath (no — the active floor turns manure into fine dust), and Drake warns against a new AI chatbot recommending random FPJ plants, suggesting farmers just use the weeds already growing nearby instead.

Questions answered

  • 10:29 Can you rig up a mobile natural-farming sprayer in your car? — Yes — wire a small ATV sprayer tank into your car's 12-volt cigarette lighter outlet.
  • 12:44 What is Drake building with the levers, Pi Pico, and small robot chassis? — A zero-turn mower autopilot simulator, built before scaling the system up to a real mower.
  • 17:29 Who can use Pure KNF's free precision RTK GPS signal? — Anyone inside the coverage circle shown on pureknf.org, useful for autonomous mowing and spraying.
  • 19:47 Is the new AI chatbot for picking FPJ plants reliable? — No — it told users to add water to finished plant juice, so just use the weeds already growing in your area instead.
  • 29:50 How can a farmer get a KNF training scholarship? — Send the foundation a petition — Pedro from Sao Paulo got one in 2023 for a seven-day training at the KNF farm in Hawaii.
  • 25:59 How do you search past office hours episodes for a specific topic? — Go to knfsupport.com or pureknf.org, open Office Hours, and search by keyword since most episodes have a table of contents.
  • 59:38 With KNF chickens, do you have to move the roosts or clean under them? — No — the floor is active and turns the manure into a fine dust the chickens stir up themselves.
  • 1:01:03 Has Drake had luck running a black soldier fly operation for chicken feed? — No — he's always failed at it because he doesn't feed the colony enough to keep it going.
  • 1:01:49 How will the new monthly associate member meetings work? — They'll run over Zoom for more interaction, while weekly office hours stay on YouTube.

Topics: chicken house, rtk gps, fpj, jadam, ulop, ulap, drone spraying, black soldier fly, banana bunchy top, scholarship, autopilot mower, knf support

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 Cold open and welcome
  2. 2:00 I Ching: Pushing Upward
  3. 5:07 Global chat shoutouts, worldwide community
  4. 10:29 Mobile sprayer wired into a car's 12-volt outlet
  5. 12:44 Building a zero-turn mower autopilot simulator
  6. 13:31 BeagleBone Blue running ArduPilot/ArduRover
  7. 17:29 Free RTK precision GPS coverage explained
  8. 19:47 FPJ chatbot caution: use local weeds instead
  9. 21:22 2023 Pure KNF Annual Report begins
  10. 26:42 Viewership stats: 74 avg viewers, 4,852 hours watched
  11. 29:50 KNF Support stats and training scholarships
  12. 35:52 Drone spraying program: Agras T40 research
  13. 39:39 Micro-documentaries and 2024 membership launch
  14. 48:46 Maui FAM program and certification numbers
  15. 53:55 Jadam ULOP/ULAP certification history
  16. 59:38 Q&A: chicken roost cleaning
  17. 1:01:03 Black soldier fly for chicken feed
  18. 1:02:46 Wrap-up and sign-off

Transcript

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

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