DAILY DIRT: Let’s take a moment of silence for those 3,003 cows

Football is not that far away, folks … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 615 of The Daily Dirt.

1. Even though football season is about three months away (two, if you count preseason camps, exhibition games, etc.), here are some enlightening pieces of information I had never thought about until the other day when looking at a story about cows (I know, I know. It was a slow day at Muddy River News … ).

It seems Wilson Sporting Goods needs about 35,000 cows per season to satisfy the need of its football-buying customers. That seems like a lot of cow hides. Let’s see how this breaks down:

• According to information supplied by Wilson, it manufactures about 700,000 regulation footballs each calendar year.
• The company says a single cow hide can make about 20 footballs. (Do the math. It comes out to 35,000 cows if my calculator is correct.)
• Wilson’s most famous customer is arguably the NFL, which needs about 11,520 footballs for its games each season. That’s 576 cows.
• The NFL also requires another 48,420 footballs (and 2,427 cows) for practice balls and other needs.

In closing, that means the NFL needs 3,003 cows each year just to make our Sunday afternoons/evenings and Monday nights so enjoyable. 

I hope the rest of the cow is put to good use for hamburgers, steaks, roasts, etc.

2. Monday fun fact I

Over the course of your lifetime, you’ll shed about 70 pounds of skin. Not all at once, mind you, but according to a study published in the American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science and Technology, humans shed around 0.003 of an ounce of skin per hour. Although it might not sound like much, over the course of a lifetime, it all adds up.

3. Monday fun fact II

This, friends, is a natural follow-up to the previous thought. While a new mattress weighs around 90 pounds, a used mattress weighs about 110 pounds. The difference in weight is due to all the oil, moisture, dead skin and colonies of dust mites absorbed by the mattress over time. A study published by The Ohio State University, in fact, shows that a typical used mattress may be home to 100,000 to 10 million dust mites.

Enjoy your next nap. 

Steve Thought O’ The Day — I may never sleep again. Dead colonies of dust mites? Are you kidding me?!

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. Apparently, he doesn’t change his sheets often enough.