A giant steer in Western Australia is making headlines after his owner declared him, unofficially, Australia’s biggest steer.
The seven-year-old named Knickers stands at a whopping 194 centimetres tall and weighs about 1,400 kilograms — that’s double the weight of the average Holstein Friesian, a common breed of dairy cattle.
While Knickers’ size may seem cumbersome, it does have its advantages. When owner Geoff Pearson tried to put him up for auction last month, meat processors said they simply couldn’t handle him and he was spared the abattoir.
The steer will instead live out his days on the Lake Preston feedlot in Myalup, 136 kilometres south of Perth.
“It was too heavy. I wouldn’t be able to put it through a processing facility,” Pearson told Perth Now. “So I think it will just live happily ever after.”
Naturally, Knickers’ gigantic frame made headlines around the world, with everyone from the BBC to CNN covering the story and declaring their shock at the Aussie heavyweight.
“Absolute unit, in awe at the size of this lad,” one person wrote on social media. While another added: “Knickers the cow is the best big thing in Australia.”
A third wrote: “The other cows look like babies!!”
Knickers was originally purchased for AU$400 to act as a “coach” for other cattle.
“You’ll put him in a paddock and all the other cattle seem to get attracted to him,” Pearson told the ABC. “Whenever he wants to get up and start walking there’s a trail of hundreds of cattle following him.
“We all know when Knickers in on the move.”
When asked about Knickers’ decidedly delicate name, Pearson told the publication it came about because of the steer’s his close friend Bra, a Brahman steer.
“[We had] the full set [of underwear] — top and bottom,” he joked.
The world’s tallest living steer is an Italian chianina ox measuring 2.03 metres from hoof to withers, according to Guinness World Records.
In August 2014, Blossom a 190cm-tall American Holstein, was awarded the record for the world’s tallest cow but died just a year after being officially recognised by the record books.
Australia’s own Big Moo, a South Australian Guernsey steer, was previously thought to be the biggest in Australia, standing 190cm tall.