The Super Bowl murders 22 cows, figures Meghan Walsh:
“Every cowhide makes about 10 balls, according to Kevin Murphy, the general manager of Wilson Football, official NFL ball-maker since 1941. Wilson wouldn’t say exactly how many balls it produces in a season, but the Chicago company did share that the Super Bowl alone requires 216 footballs — each team gets 54 for practice and 54 for game day (the Pats and Hawks had theirs within 24 hours of winning the AFC and NFC championships last year). Wilson, true to its roots, favors cattle from the Midwest — Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska — but all the leather eventually makes its way to a factory in Ada, Ohio.”
–“How Many Cows Does It Take to Make a Football?” Meghan Walsh, OZY
And then there are the 650 million chickens who died so the game’s TV viewers can eat their wings ….
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“Dairy farmers have become experts in cow comfort, from barn design to climate control engineering to keep cows as content as possible. But not all the attempts to sooth cows are quite so high tech. It may sounds silly, but some farmers swear by playing relaxing tunes for their herd for maximum milk results. But can you really slow jam your way to higher milk production? Turns out that yes, you just might.”
— “Milking to Music,” Anna O’Brien, Modern Farmer
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Have you heard that story of how methane from the flatulence of 90 German cows caused their dairy barn to explode? It’s probably bullcrap.
“While it’s true that cows can produce 250 to 500 liters of methane per day — mostly through burps that vent their fermenting cud — it’s unlikely that flatulence alone concentrated to the point of being flammable. The more likely suspect behind the methane, says a second report from Humnfelder Zeitung, is the common slurry farmers make from cow manure and urine for fertilizer applications. The soupy mixture puts out high levels of methane that can concentrate more easily than farts and burps, which tend to dissipate much more quickly in a ventilated dairy barn, just as it would in a car with a cracked window.
‘The cow itself has little to do with the risk of a methane explosion. This is only a danger when dealing with manure,’ said Dr. Hubery Beier, executive director of the local farmer’s association for Rasdorf.”
— “Media Laps Up Bunk Story on Exploding German Cow Farts,” Sam Brasch, Modern Farmer
Related:
“The Taxonomy of Cow Farts,” Christopher Taylor, Catalogue of Organisms
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Argentina raises a whole lot of cows, and they raise a whole lot of burps. When you’ve got four stomachs and eat plants all day, gas happens. That gas is mostly methane, and each cow belches about 300 liters of it daily. It’s a polluting greenhouse gas, but it’s also fuel. Argentinos want to use all that gas to power up their cars — or maybe even cook up all that beef.
More:
“Argentine scientists tap cow burps for natural gas,” Maximiliano Rizzi, Reuters
“El gas de las vacas puede alimentar un motor,” INTA Informa
Reuters video here
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“Let’s get this out of the way: Cow tipping, at least as popularly imagined, does not exist. Drunk young men do not, on any regular basis, sneak into cow pastures and put a hard shoulder into a cow taking a standing snooze, thus tipping the poor animal over.
While in the history of the world there have surely been a few unlucky cows shoved to their side by boozed-up morons, we feel confident in saying this happens at a rate roughly equivalent to the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series.”
— “Cow Tipping: Fake or Really Fake?” Jake Swearingen, Modern Farmer
A 2006 UN study claimed meat production is responsible for creating more greenhouse gas emissions than the exhaust of all cars, SUVs, buses, planes and trucks combined. Methane and other greenhouse gases are produced by cow flatulence and burping.
If you need to discuss it in polite company, the process that makes cows gassy is called “enteric fermentation.” Cow burps are “ruminant eructation.”
A 2009 study estimated that half of all greenhouse gases are generated by livestock. Investigators have been collecting cow gas emissions (methane and nitrous oxide) in huge plastic containers for analysis. People concerned about Global Warming have urged a reduction in meat eating in order to reduce the size of gassy cattle herds.
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