Cow Leather

Globally, there are approximately 1.6 billion cattle, including calves, buffaloes and zebus (as of 2011). 15 to 25% of these are slaughtered annually. Cow leather is the most widely used leather and accounts for about 65 to 70% of world production. Almost 100% of the slaughtered cattle and calves are used. Approx. 93% is processed into meat products, approx. 3.5% are fats, bones etc. which are also processed and 3.5% are skins which are processed into leather. Even the hair that is removed during leather production is not dissolved during the liming process in modern tanneries, but processed into fertilizer.