Age of cow before slaughter - Mcdonalds' meat sources.

[thetransporter]

I was curious and being getting different answers..

I heard its like a few months old?

[GTS4tw]

I'm going to guess that McDonalds gets their meat from multiple sources and they probably don't go by age... Doubtful that they are that young for the most part.

[spikerS]

mmmmm, veal....

I doubt they are slaughtering calves for McDonalds hamburgers. Veal is more expensive than regular ground chuck.

[JRSC00LUDE]

Oh, McDonalds doesn't use beef. Geez man.

[ExtraSlow]

I'm no beef industry expert, but I know a couple of ranchers, so I asked.

Looks like most beef in Alberta is made from steers (boys with no nuts) that are about one year of age. Apparently it's more to do with weight than age though.
I belive at commercial feedlots, they fatten up and grow faster, so they are probably younger, and at any of those "all natural grass fed" places it's probably a slower process, so they are a little older. I guess the gorwth rate slows down shortly after that, so it's more economical to kill a cow a year than to make it bigger and slaughter every two years.

I'm sure in ground meat, there are a few older cows in there too. But it's probably a small percentage.

[Destinova403]

http://yourquestions.mcdonalds.ca/questions/219

and

http://yourquestions.mcdonalds.ca/questions/3987

Not sure how accurate this is.

[suntan]

C1nxaQhsaaw

[Graham_A_M]

Yeah you dont want cows that are too old, as the meat becomes very fatty, the younger they are, typically the more lean the meat is. Since cows are sold by weight, whoever buys the meat would always want younger ones since you're getting more meat/kilogram.