Meet Knickers, the giant cow that is neither a cow nor a giant

Source: Washington Post

Meet Knickers, the giant cow that is neither a cow nor a giant

By Jason Bittel November 28 at 4:33 PM

This week, a Holstein by the name of Knickers captured the heart of the Internet by standing horns and shoulders above a herd of cattle on a farm in Australia.

And there’s no arguing that the lad is large.

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“This story needs some perspective,” said Aniek Bouwman, an expert in animal breeding and genomics at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

For starters, she said, it’s important to note that Knickers is not a cow but a steer, and that males are typically quite a bit larger than females. (Note: Only females who have had at least one calf are referred to as “cows” in cattle circles.) But his breed is also important, Bouwman said.

Male Holsteins tend to top out at just under 6 feet in height, while other breeds, like the wagyu cattle that surround Knickers in the now-famous photos of him, usually come in under 4.5 feet.

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/11/28/meet-knickers-giant-cow-that-is-neither-cow-nor-giant/


Knickers is often followed by a herd of wagyu cattle