Hmmmm
the BBC and the poms are in love with knickers atm -
that's one very big boy
View attachment 1375997Knickers looms above the thousands of other cattle that he feeds with in rural Western Australia.
At some 1,400kg (220st) and 194cm (6ft 4in), the seven-year-old is believed to be the biggest steer in a country home to millions of cattle.
And his size has proved to be his saving grace. When owner Geoff Pearson tried to put him up for auction last month, meat processors said they simply couldn't handle him - so Knickers avoided the abattoir.
He will now live out the rest of his life on Lake Preston feedlot in Myalup, 136km (85 miles) south of Perth.
"Knickers lives on," says Mr Pearson, who has been fielding calls from local journalists since the Australian public broadcaster drew attention to the enormous steer - a Holstein Friesian, but significantly taller than the average for that breed.
He was first bought as a "coach" - a steer that leads other cattle - at the age of about 12 months. Steers are castrated males.
"He was always a standout steer from the others, a bit bigger than the rest," says Mr Pearson. Although "some of his mates" were sent for slaughter at an early age, "he was still a standout so we thought let's leave him there, he's not hurting anyone".
But after a few more rotations of cattle, the cattle farmers "realised he wasn't stopping growing". And now he's too big to sell.
