# The bovine of Micky D's

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bovine-of-micky-ds/57962>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 14, 2001, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bovine-of-micky-ds/57962 "2001-03-14T15:58:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ChiefScott](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@ChiefScott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChiefScott)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bovine-of-micky-ds/57962/1 "2001-03-14T15:58:18Z")

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I was discussing the foot (hoof) and mouth disease that is currently plaguing our bretheren across the big pond. As I meandered through the conversation I raised two questions which couldn’t be readily answered:

1. How many cows/steers does McDonald’s go through in a year?

2. Would McDonald’s remain open if a moratorium was impose on American beef? If so, what would they sell?

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**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bovine-of-micky-ds/57962/2 "2001-03-14T16:28:01Z")

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According to [this page](http://www.mcspotlight.org/cgi-bin/zv/case/trial/transcripts/941215/03.htm) (from a trial transcript), McDonald’s used 225,791 metric tonnes of beef in the US (in 1994 or so). [This site](http://www.unb.ca/web/bruns/9697/news/Issue14/diduknow.html) says “although an average cow weighs in at 550 kilos, less than 45 kilos are used for hamburger.” A metric tonne is 1000 kg. So that works out to around 5 million cows a year. And that’s just for the US. Yikes!

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [March 14, 2001, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-bovine-of-micky-ds/57962/3 "2001-03-14T18:40:26Z")

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**Cecil Adams** : [How many cows are slaughtered each year to make McDonald’s hamburgers?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_186.html) The column was last updated about 1993.