this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2026
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[–] ExtremeDullard@piefed.social 147 points 1 day ago (5 children)

It would be insightful if the math checked out.

You can get roughly 1600 beef patties out of one cow. Your 6.5M burgers a day use up 125,937 cows per month and there's 95M cattle in the US.

[–] Egonallanon@feddit.uk 98 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Honestly mind boggling that 125 thousand cows are slaughtered each month just to support maccas. Once you add various other places selling beef burgers and other beef cuts and I imagine the number can get a lot bigger

[–] tar@lemmy.zip 2 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

cows aren't killed for burgers.

[–] uniquethrowagay@feddit.org 2 points 9 hours ago (1 children)
[–] humorlessrepost@lemmy.world 3 points 5 hours ago

They’re killed for their crimes against humanity. We just don’t let them go to waste afterward.

[–] undefined@lemmy.hogru.ch 48 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In any case it’s despicable.

[–] python@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Most fast food burgers are made from depleted milk cows, so there's actually little overlap with places that sell beef from dedicated meat cows

[–] WildPalmTree@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I have no idea if this is true but it is so genious and calculating that if it is not, i commend you. Wow. You can still call it American (or whatever country you are in) beef and not lie, but it is such shit quality and at such a low price that it has never occured to people. Much like "genuine leather". Humanity amazes me.

[–] python@lemmy.world 10 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Yeah, if everyone stopped eating at McDonald's, supermarket beef wouldn't actually get cheaper, but dog food would. There are a thousand more tricks and shortcuts like that in the animal industry - I'd really recommend watching Dominion, as it shows quite a few more of those

[–] FragrantGarden@lemmy.today 3 points 13 hours ago

Hate to break it to you but your local supermarket and big grocery chain uses cow beef for ground beef also. Same stuff as McDonald's. You guys are perpetuating old info (circa 2012) that has to do with XF trim and LFTB.

[–] WildPalmTree@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

Will make sure to watch it. Sounds like something more people should do. Thanks!

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 1 points 1 day ago

The other number should be the one that's mind boggling. We see the number "million" so much and don't grasp its scale.

[–] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 4 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

McDonald's gets the very last stage of leftover beef from the carcass. If they don't buy it, it goes to things like animal feed.

I don't know how much McDonald's-grade beef is on a cow, but I'm guessing the real numbers are how much non-McDonald's beef people are eating, divided by the average weight of cows

[–] FragrantGarden@lemmy.today 4 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

So wrong here. They grind trimmings, the same trimmings that are ground into ground beef that sits in the counters of your local retailer. I sell this shit and can guarantee you the McDonald's system is not my last option, those trimmings all make it into the food supply. Also you can't feed cow parts to food animals ,it's a BSE risk.

[–] Nollij@sopuli.xyz 4 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Looks like McDonald's changed their sourcing about 10 years ago. Now they use trimmings as you said; previously they used pink slime.

For the record, I never said (nor implied) that it would be fed to food animals. I was thinking more like dog food

[–] faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 1 points 4 hours ago

There's a whole bunch of beef that's not edible by USDA standards, and that's what gets made into dog food. I used to date somebody that worked at a glass-bottle dairy, and they'd eat it anyways, but it was clearly marked on the package "not for human consumption".

[–] Nioxic@lemmy.dbzer0.com 24 points 1 day ago

Mcdonalds beef patties?

Or regular?

Coz they are thinner than a pickle slice these days

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

That count is way off.

An average cow is 600kg, and yields 36-48% in pure meat, so around 250kg.

McDonald's standard patty is 45g, while larger patties - say, like, the Quarter Pounder - go up to 120g.

Presuming 2/3 of all burgers per cow are regular, and 1/3 are Quarter Pounder size, then we have a simple formula to solve:

2x*0.045kg + x*0.120kg = 250kg

That makes X approximately 1190, so the total number of burgers is ~3570, over double of your calculations.

[–] ExtremeDullard@piefed.social 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

1600 patties per cow is a value I've heard since I was a kid in the 70s. It wasn't McD specifically. Maybe the cows have grown fatter or the patties smaller over the decades.

Anyway, my point was, hundreds of millions of burgers doesn't deplete the country of cattle heads. It was an remark about orders of magnitude.

[–] fonix232@fedia.io 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'd say that McD's patties are super small. Your average patty will be around 6-8oz, so 170-230g, which is much closer to your initial number of 1600 parties per cow.

[–] ExtremeDullard@piefed.social 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

1600 parties per cow

Oh yeah, those cows are party animals 🙂

[–] Wfh@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Bold of you to assume McD's patties are pure meat. Probably half the weight is extra fat and pink slime, so you can easily double that.

[–] ryannathans@aussie.zone 4 points 1 day ago

Maybe in the US, in Australia they are 100% Angus beef

[–] MissJinx@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

That was my take also.

[–] merci3@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] And009@lemmynsfw.com 2 points 22 hours ago

Forgot this exists, no more wondering like op.