--- title: Why Knickers the Cow Is So Giant description: After a photo of Knickers the giant cow began sweeping the Internet, some people began to wonder why the steer had reached such a colossal stature. canonical: https://time.com/5465612/knickers-the-giant-cow/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-11-28T16:44:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-13T08:07:17.572Z og:title: An Expert's Opinion on Why Knickers the Famously Colossal Cow Is So Giant og:description: Why the Australian steer everyone loves could be standing so tall og:url: https://time.com/5465612/knickers-the-giant-cow/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8c6b561cd744eb31/69894016929fad08d7bf22e8/ap18332206203289.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2129 og:image:height: 1198 og:image:alt: Australia Huge Steer og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: An Expert's Opinion on Why Knickers the Famously Colossal Cow Is So Giant twitter:description: Why the Australian steer everyone loves could be standing so tall twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8c6b561cd744eb31/69894016929fad08d7bf22e8/ap18332206203289.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # An Expert's Opinion on Why Everyone's Favorite 'Colossal Cow' Knickers Is So Big > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=92c36102-cb18-4d95-8088-0a6b6b7d005b&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: A Colossal Australian Cow That Wowed the Internet Will Be Saved From Slaughter [Watch (HLS stream): A Colossal Australian Cow That Wowed the Internet Will Be Saved From Slaughter](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PyrzmqVW.m3u8) (0:19)  _Published 2018-11-28. A enormous steer in the state of Western Australia has avoided the abattoirs by being too big._  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Nov 28, 2018 4:44 PM UTC A enormous steer in the state of Western Australia has avoided the abattoirs by being too big.  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Nov 28, 2018 4:44 PM UTC After a photo of [Knickers the giant steer](http://time.com/5465442/australia-knickers-cow-spared/) began sweeping the Internet on Tuesday, some people began to wonder why the [behemoth bovine](http://time.com/4865239/how-cows-are-helping-fight-against-hiv/) had reached such a colossal stature. In the viral photo captured at a farm in [Australia](http://time.com/5451739/australia-needles-strawberries-woman-charged/), the 6-ft.-4-in. Knickers, who is believed to weigh about 1.4 tons, can be seen standing head and shoulders above a herd of brown cattle. According to Dr. M. Todd See, the head of the Department of Animal Science at North Carolina State University, this size advantage may have something to do with his breed. “The Holstein Fresian is one of the larger cattle breeds and is the largest dairy breed of cattle in size,” See told TIME. “The cattle that he is pictured with are of beef breed or breed crosses that are more moderate in size, so from a genetic perspective, I would expect him to be larger and taller. A simple but perhaps more extreme analogy would be a Great Dane dog as compared to a Yorkshire Terrier.” However, See added that Knickers’ massive size could also be related to his older age. “He is 7 years old. Typically cattle raised on pasture for beef would be 18 to 26 months of age,” See said. “While when he reached greater than two years of age his rate of growth would have slowed, he would have continued to increase in weight and size.” ## Transcript [00:00] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] He was always [00:05] a standout steer so [00:10] we kept him for [00:15] that reason ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5465612/knickers-the-giant-cow/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5465612/knickers-the-giant-cow/"},"headline":"An Expert's Opinion on Why Everyone's Favorite 'Colossal Cow' Knickers Is So Big","datePublished":"2018-11-28T16:44:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-13T08:07:17.572Z","description":"The Australian steer stands at 6-ft.-4-in.","url":"https://time.com/5465612/knickers-the-giant-cow/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","Cows"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8c6b561cd744eb31/69894016929fad08d7bf22e8/ap18332206203289.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8c6b561cd744eb31/69894016929fad08d7bf22e8/ap18332206203289.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Australia Huge Steer","caption":"Australia Huge Steer","creditText":"Channel 7's Today Tonight/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5465612/knickers-the-giant-cow/","name":"An Expert's Opinion on Why Everyone's Favorite 'Colossal Cow' Knickers Is So Big"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"A Colossal Australian Cow That Wowed the Internet Will Be Saved From Slaughter","description":"A enormous steer in the state of Western Australia has avoided the abattoirs by being too big.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/PyrzmqVW/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-11-28T09:45:13.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/PyrzmqVW.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5465612/knickers-the-giant-cow/","duration":"PT19S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5465612/knickers-the-giant-cow/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```