Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => The Environment => Topic started by: geo driver on 06/12/2009 21:26:30

Title: How many burgers can be made from a cow?
Post by: geo driver on 06/12/2009 21:26:30

how many burgers (150g) of minced meat can you get from a cow?

I'm curious to know, in the pub i sell a lot of burgers. I'm working out how many cows lay down there lives for the pub, there for i can work out how much land is being used each year
, and just how much is wasted each year, on behalf of the pub.

i would like to economize the land/cow usage limite the waste

Title: Re: How many burgers can be made from a cow?
Post by: Chemistry4me on 07/12/2009 04:30:03

Wow [:o] I had no idea...

Title: Re: How many burgers can be made from a cow?
Post by: Don_1 on 07/12/2009 07:17:31

Desperate Dan ate the meat bones and horns too!!! (https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fforbiddenplanet.co.uk%2Fblog%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2007%2F08%2FDesperate%2520Dan%2520cow%2520pie.jpg&hash=8d30faee4fc1010028bac50422e1ee4d)

Title: Re: How many burgers can be made from a cow?
Post by: geo driver on 07/12/2009 07:23:00

rough calculations theres only 228 kilo of meat on a cow that deos not seem too much

Title: Re: How many burgers can be made from a cow?
Post by: geo driver on 07/12/2009 22:54:58

right so 456lb*14(oz)/3.5*100

i make that 182.4 kg per cow say on a avrage week we sell 400 burgers at 150g each then thats 60 kg of beef a week 3.3 cows a month doesnt sound to bad hummmmm

Title: Re: How many burgers can be made from a cow?
Post by: geo driver on 08/12/2009 08:17:44

that looks more right.  maths was always my strong point ....  ummmm or not next time i will use a calculator

Title: How many burgers can be made from a cow?
Post by: Karen W. on 08/12/2009 09:50:50

hambugers run from  1/4 bls to 1 full pound burgers each depending on the size you want... LOL  Quarter ponder with cheese please!.......LOL!

Title: How many burgers can be made from a cow?
Post by: geo driver on 08/12/2009 10:29:45

mine go from 150g to 300g its been a long time since i worked with imperial measurements and i cant do the conversion now

Title: How many burgers can be made from a cow?
Post by: geo driver on 08/12/2009 10:30:23

but a 1 lb burger must be enormous

Title: How many burgers can be made from a cow?
Post by: litespeed on 09/12/2009 22:08:56

In Wyoming my cousin raises cattle, and each one requires about ten acres of that rather difficult land.  For instance, 4,000 acres might support 400 cows. "An 1,150 lb. steer doesn’t yield 1,150 lbs. of beef. On the average, that steer yields a 714 lb. carcass. Approximately 146 lbs. of fat and bone are trimmed off leaving about 568 lbs. of retail beef cuts."  http://ask.metafilter.com/27259/How-much-meat-is-there-on-a-cow

However, much of that goes to more premium cuts such as Porter House, T-bone, etc. However, for arguements sake, lets stipulate 600 lb of premium hamburger. Thats 2,400 quarter pounders with/without cheese.

Things get a bit more complicated, since the 400 acres needed to produce the cow from grass grazing, WILL NOT be much useful to most grain production.  Thats why they raise cows on it after all.  Accordingly, at the very margins of productivity, a cow raised on 400 acres of Wyoming scrub land does not replace 400 acres of Iowa Maize production.

On the other-hand, almost all range fed cows are sent to feed lots where they are fattened up WITH grains from such places as Iowa.  I will leave it to the climatologists to calculate the non-grass input to a cow versus ethanol versus mueseli.

WAIT! If memory serves me correctly, my cousin's ranch is actually 8,000 acres to support 400 cows.  And it is not clear to me if he buys extra hay for the winter. Anyway, you get the idea.  Wyoming is not exactly The Fertile Crescent.