How many cows are slaughtered each year to make McDonalds hamburgers?
Dear Cecil: I was recently told that McDonald’s serves about 600 million burgers every year. Out of idle, perhaps morbid, curiosity, I wonder just how many unfortunate cows much die each year to fill this incredible demand. — Michael J., Los Angeles Dear Michael: There are a lot of variables in this question, so the answer isn’t going to be very exact, but here goes: your average cow (as opposed to my average cow) weighs somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,000 to 1,200 pounds when it’s ready for slaughter. Once it’s been butchered, about 700 to 800 edible pounds remain. Depending on how the carcass is divided up, some 12 to 15 percent of that total weight becomes hamburger meat–which means roughly (very roughly) that one cow is good for some 100 pounds of burger meat. You were probably floored when you heard that McDonald’s pushes 600 million burgers a year, right? Well, you better sit down, pal, because the actual sales figure as of 1993 (the last time I checked) was more like five an
