Technically he is not a cow, but a steer (a neutered male). But he is giant, standing at 1.94 metres (6ft 4in ) to his withers (the shoulder). This is just shy of the world record-holding steer, Bellino, who lives in Italy and stands at 2.02 meters. Knickers, a Holstein Friesian, weighs in at 1,400 kilograms and is believed to be the biggest steer in Australia.
Knickers is unusual in that he was given the chance to grow to his full height. Steers are usually sold to processing plants at the age of two or three years. Pearson tried to offload him last month, only to be told by the meat processors said the steer was just too large for the butchery.
“He’s too big for the processing chain, he’s out of spec, he’d be too heavy for the machines and he’d probably actually be hanging on the floor, so there would be contamination issues, and his cuts of meat would be too large,” Pearson says.
Which means Knickers can live out his days on the 3,000-acre property, home to 4,000 head of cattle, for whom he acts as a “coach” – showing them where to roam.
“He just hangs around, he’s part of the furniture,” Pearson says. “Obviously he’s gained some stardom – that’s changed his identity a little bit. We’ll have to see what happens with that.”
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