I know this is a really odd question, but how much blood, in liters, say, is in your average cow?
Well, if we assume the average cow weighs eight times as much as an adult (a good assumption, depending on what kind of cow we’re talking about), and an average adult has 6 quarts (about 6 liters) of blood (another good assumption), AND the amount of blood per weight of a cow is about the same as that of people (possible bad assumption, I don’t know, but it seems reasonable), then my guess would be about 48 quarts (about 48 liters, give or take a few).
“Total blood volume for most mammals : Approximately 7 to 8% of the total body weight.” source: http://vet.snu.ac.kr/histology/his_lecture/blood.htm
The weight of a cow depends on the breed. Jersey cows are rather small at about 1,000 lb. or less, Chianina are rather large, about about 1,800 lb. (Chianina bulls are much bigger). If we take 7.5% of 1,500 lb, we get about 110 lb., or about 13 gallons. (I asumed bovine blood has the same specific gravity as human blood, or about 1.05). In other words, about the same as what Cabbage said.
Planning to do away with old Bossy? I’ve got a killer recipe for blood and tongue sausage if you want it.
Now why do I have this mental image of the Gary Larson cartoon, “Thwarting the Vamp-Cow”?
Yeah, um, WHY THE F*** DO YOU NEED TO KNOW HOW MUCH BLOOD’S IN A COW?!
Just curious…it’s not every day somebody asks a question like that…
All I know is I’ve come up with a whole lot of disturbingly entertaining experiments to find out.