This is very, very helpful. I just got my first breeding pair of Mangalista Blondes. I have three pens and I am going to try this method. I’m a physician. I have a strong belief in the gut micro biome. Obviously, if the microbes around us are healthy .. then we have those and we are healthy. Fascinating! Great job. I’m in South Dakota.
The deep bedding above grade is just brilliant. It allows oxygen to enter the charcoal and log layer from the sides. Building a good fence containment for that mass of carbon is much easier than digging a hole. This is absolutely perfect. My cousin in Kansas has, at any one time, 4 to 5 thousand hogs in process. That is an extreme commercial operation. This KNF is perfect win level for the small to medium operation. 5 to 50 hogs easily depending on your scale. Great video!!!!
Mangalica is the best pork! 😍 It's true it has a lot more fat, but the fat is a lot healthier than other pig's fat! And the meat is also tastier! 😋 Not to mention how cute they are with their curly hair!
Love your enthusiasm to learn, share, and educate; this is why I follow you. Being good stewards of the earth and treating animals humanely, allowing nature, man, and animal to work together to build a better world for future generations.
Love your KNF system for raising pigs on your farm Blake. Cool to see how you applied it to your context, and everything was explained so well, thanks!
Wow really love this!! just bought a little property for some small organic farming and I would love to meet with people like you guys. Keep up the great content
You guys answered so many questions about kNF. I will just go above ground with the layers of carbon! I KNOW this is a system that will be on my 4 acre homestead someday soonish!🤙
Really enjoyed this video. At about 9:08 Blake talks about ramping up his charcoal production. This would make a great video. If a video isn't forthcoming, could he please talk more about ramping up charcoal production?
I dug a pit and set a concrete cattle feed trough in it. Got a brush pile built up around it that took a while, it was 40-50 feet across and 10’ high when I lit 🔥 to it. Then took the front end loader and kept pushing it toward the center to get hot coals all in the bottom of the pile. Add more solid logs to completely cover that, almost like you were trying to smother it out. When those start to have burned enough to be white ash covered, I began spraying with water. Probably 100 gallons over 2-3 hours till the smoke completely stopped. Came back next morning and put another 400-500 gallons on it. Made enough to cover 500sq’ with 6” of charcoal.
I dug a pit and set a concrete cattle feed trough in it. Got a brush pile built up around it that took a while, it was 40-50 feet across and 10’ high when I lit 🔥 to it. Then took the front end loader and kept pushing it toward the center to get hot coals all in the bottom of the pile. Add more solid logs to completely cover that, almost like you were trying to smother it out. When those start to have burned enough to be white ash covered, I began spraying with water. Probably 100 gallons over 2-3 hours till the smoke completely stopped. Came back next morning and put another 400-500 gallons on it. Made enough to cover 500sq’ with 6” of charcoal.
I have been interested in kNF and IMO. I may end up using it over rotation pasture grazing because our ag property is in a tropical rainforest and I am concerned about the pasture management in a rain setting. I have heard of folks going to Master Cho to get certified in KNF
I can't tell if the heat lights are secured... please secure we're the sows can't knock them down and start a fire. I had a grumpy sow knock one down and caught the barn on fire.
I dug a pit and set a concrete cattle feed trough in it. Got a brush pile built up around it that took a while, it was 40-50 feet across and 10’ high when I lit 🔥 to it. Then took the front end loader and kept pushing it toward the center to get hot coals all in the bottom of the pile. Add more solid logs to completely cover that, almost like you were trying to smother it out. When those start to have burned enough to be white ash covered, I began spraying with water. Probably 100 gallons over 2-3 hours till the smoke completely stopped. Came back next morning and put another 400-500 gallons on it. Made enough to cover 500sq’ with 6” of charcoal.
Great question. 1st winter I put no rat bait out, and yes mice will setup a home in the bottom. When baby pigs are not running around, I put blocks of poison out to control mice.
I dug a pit and set a concrete cattle feed trough in it. Got a brush pile built up around it that took a while, it was 40-50 feet across and 10’ high when I lit 🔥 to it. Then took the front end loader and kept pushing it toward the center to get hot coals all in the bottom of the pile. Add more solid logs to completely cover that, almost like you were trying to smother it out. When those start to have burned enough to be white ash covered, I began spraying with water. Probably 100 gallons over 2-3 hours till the smoke completely stopped. Came back next morning and put another 400-500 gallons on it. Made enough to cover 500sq’ with 6” of charcoal.
Wow this is great. I currently have 4 pigs in my barn and have been trying to bed down there pen with straw to help with the smell, moisture and heat but it’s not working. I would love to give this a try. I would love some more information on the KNF system.
Pigs root around. Are the logs really necessary? I would think they would turn the “compost” for you for aeration. Plant in some special treats to encourage their rooting. Do love the slot… why didn’t I think of that? LoL
I dug a pit and set a concrete cattle feed trough in it. Got a brush pile built up around it that took a while, it was 40-50 feet across and 10’ high when I lit 🔥 to it. Then took the front end loader and kept pushing it toward the center to get hot coals all in the bottom of the pile. Add more solid logs to completely cover that, almost like you were trying to smother it out. When those start to have burned enough to be white ash covered, I began spraying with water. Probably 100 gallons over 2-3 hours till the smoke completely stopped. Came back next morning and put another 400-500 gallons on it. Made enough to cover 500sq’ with 6” of charcoal.
Yup, Both Cliff & Henry know their pigs. I have the utmost respect for them. Once I have things figured out here, get the infrastructure set-up and the cash in hand, I plan to get my breeders from Cliff. He’s much closer to me. I had Mangalitsa meat at the Self-Reliance festival. Maybe they had a cull pig, because it was not good at all. It was dry and chewy, not flavorful. Billy Bond (PermaPasturesFarm on YT) butchered it and mentioned that it had no fat ring on it. (I don’t recall who provided the pig, and even if I remembered, I’d not mention them.) Being a larder, one would expect to see much more fat. I’m hoping one day to try a good one.
Cliff will have great choices for you. Also, that’s too bad your experience with mangalista was not a good one. There have been stories of people trying to raise them on forages alone, but it won’t produce something good. Maybe that happened, when I had an 18mnth barrow processed, 70% fat. It was delicious.
I only have space to start seeds indoors. I bought a seedling heat mat for my peppers and strawberries. Do I need to use a thermostat with it? If so, what should I set the temperature at? Thanks for any help.
Excellent method and news for my planing phase pig keeping ambitions; this blew me away; I also recognized the method as an upscaled pig-driven compost reactor! One important question popped into my mind immediately, though: what about vermin, mice and rats? The clearance between the ground and the actual bedding material, the nooks and cravices in the log layer seems to me as an ideal vermin-problem hotbed in the waiting, pun not intended! But seriously, thick, warm, dry bedding material, with lots of vertical space for tunneling. Would truly appreciate if you could provide some insight on the issue, thank you! Lovely mangalica pigs, greetings from Hungary!
I dug a pit and set a concrete cattle feed trough in it. Got a brush pile built up around it that took a while, it was 40-50 feet across and 10’ high when I lit 🔥 to it. Then took the front end loader and kept pushing it toward the center to get hot coals all in the bottom of the pile. Add more solid logs to completely cover that, almost like you were trying to smother it out. When those start to have burned enough to be white ash covered, I began spraying with water. Probably 100 gallons over 2-3 hours till the smoke completely stopped. Came back next morning and put another 400-500 gallons on it. Made enough to cover 500sq’ with 6” of charcoal.
Hi Steven. Do you think high quality compost (soil food web thermophilic compost) can be used in place of imo4 to innoculate the bedding? Thanks in advance
I dug a pit and set a concrete cattle feed trough in it. Got a brush pile built up around it that took a while, it was 40-50 feet across and 10’ high when I lit 🔥 to it. Then took the front end loader and kept pushing it toward the center to get hot coals all in the bottom of the pile. Add more solid logs to completely cover that, almost like you were trying to smother it out. When those start to have burned enough to be white ash covered, I began spraying with water. Probably 100 gallons over 2-3 hours till the smoke completely stopped. Came back next morning and put another 400-500 gallons on it. Made enough to cover 500sq’ with 6” of charcoal.
I learned that the smell of pigs in 100% due to the feed they are given. no exceptions. This is from 100% personal experience. NOT you tube videos etc.
When we fed brewers grains we had no smell. Only when we've fed commercial products - processed feed smells the absolute worst. We haven't found a regular source of the brewers grain since we moved so we're trying to at least get something more natural to see how it works.
All of the above. Spray IMO4 and LABS on the layers as you build the pen. Sprinkle some solid IMO4 as well. When pen is complete just spray when you notice smells building. I add IMO to their food, LABS in water.
Does the type of logs matter? Can one use pine,fur or any other type of evergreen type logs? I kind of concerned due to the pine sap possibility being a problem.
I’m in Washington State and hard wood logs are impossible to get around here. How about apple wood? I believe they are considered a hardwood. I can probably score some through a local farmer. Sometimes Orchard growers uproot their trees to change the variety they are farming.
I love this system 👍🏼👍🏼. I worked on a pig farm for a while as a teenager, the smell was horrendous...and it makes all your clothes, and even your skin stink too...awful
There are very few flies. I’m trying to figure out how to keep them cool with fans instead of Waller. It’s the west spot that has attracted flies, the poop is inert after the microbes do their job, and it doesn’t attract flies.
I'm not into Instagram. I'm interested in buying three of his March piglets. Does he have a website? I'm in Scott County Tennessee. Thanks for your help.
Has anyone tried this and gave access to a “pasture” area one or 2 days a week? I want the pigs to help knock out a raspberry thicket for future garden.
And another thing I wanted to say is that I'm a Liberian from Liberia live in Liberia, so If you were to agree to them to me how can I get them cause sending the money I know might not be a problem but getting the animals.
What if I used Plastic bottles on top of the charcoal instead of logs? 🤔 ...Only because there's a lot of plastic bottles available and because plastic lasts forever.
But the pigs do not have a chance to be pigs, KNF has some good ideas but animals need space and need to forage that is what they do. If you look at the pigs just laying there ask yourself are they having a good life before they are slaughtered?
