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A giant cow called “Knickers” has become a bit of a sensation in Australia, after being so large it couldn’t be sent to an abattoir.
Knickers weighs an impressive 1,400 kilograms (3,100 pounds) and stands 1.94 meters (6.4 feet) tall. He is unofficially thought to be the biggest steer ever in Australia. Note, a steer is not technically a cow, but who are we to judge.
Owner Geoff Pearson, who owns a farm near Perth in Western Australia, said that when he tried to put the cow up for auction, no one was able to cope with its size.
“It was too heavy. I wouldn’t be able to put it through a processing facility,” he told Perth Now. “So I think it will just live happily ever after.”
Knickers was originally bought as a “coach”, which is a castrated male cow that leads other cattle. He is a Holstein Friesian breed, which is different from the other cattle he is pictured with in the rather amusing photos, but he's still larger than average.
As for the name, Pearson told BBC News that came from another cow in his herd being a Brahman steer. "So his name was Bra... so we [had] bra and knickers,” he said.
This is not the tallest cow ever recorded, though. According to the Guinness World Records, the tallest steer is an Italian ox called Bellino, which measured 2.027 meters (6.65 feet) tall.
But that hasn’t stopped Knickers from becoming an overnight celebrity. “It’s out of control,” Pearson told The Guardian. “I didn’t expect it to go as far as it has. I’ve been called every 10 minutes since four o’clock this morning.”
And people on Twitter have been equally amazed, marveling at this mega cow.
As for why the steer is so big, no one is quite sure. One reason, though, is that steers are usually sold to processing plants at the age of two or three, but Knickers has been allowed to grow to the age of seven.
Being too large to be taken by meat processors, Knickers will live out his days along with 4,000 cattle on Pearson’s farm. And who knows what the future could hold for this fantastic beast.
