Holy Cow! Giant Steer Stands Head And Shoulders Over Herd

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By: Euan McKirdy and Alex Stambaugh, CNN

(CNN) -- This is one farm animal you wouldn't want any beef with.

"Knickers," an enormous Holstein-Friesian, is making headlines after his owner declared him -- unofficially -- Australia's biggest steer.

The 7-year-old stands at a whopping 76 inches tall -- almost as tall as NBA legend Michael Jordan -- and weighs 3,086 pounds, its owner says.

The huge ruminant towers over the other beasts in the herd from the farm in Myalup, a town about an hour-and-a-half south of Perth, the capital of Western Australia.

Holstein-Friesians are a dairy breed. Mature cows weigh about 1,500 pounds and stand 58 inches tall at the shoulder, according to one cattle industry site. Bulls usually stand over 180 centimeters tall and weigh over 2,200 pounds.

Knickers is significantly heavier and taller than that.

Owner Geoff Pearson said that Knickers' sheer size saved him from the abattoir.

"He was too big to go into the export plant's chain," the farmer told Australia's ABC News. "We have a high turnover of cattle and he was lucky enough to stay behind."

While he can't quite stake a claim to be a world-beater, Knickers measures up well against the world's largest steer, a chianina ox named Bellino who measured just over 79 inches at a cattle show in Rome in 2010.

The-CNN-Wire
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