A gigantic bullock is causing a stir at a children's play farm where it has become so big that passers by on the nearby A47 have thought it is a cardboard cut out used to advertise the farm.

Eastern Daily Press: Pigeons farm Thorney, Chocolate drop the large bullock. Picture: Steve Williams.Pigeons farm Thorney, Chocolate drop the large bullock. Picture: Steve Williams. (Image: Archant)

Chocolate Drop the bullock stands at a massive height of five feet and 10 inches - 17 2 in horse measurements - and is described by farm owners as 'like a big labrador, he is kind as kind and is quite amazing.'

He is so big that he is just six inches shorter than what is believed to be the world's largest living cow - a 13 year old female called Blossom who lives on a farm in Orangeville in Illinois in America and stands at an impressive 6ft 4in.

And he is just seven inches shorter than Britain's biggest bullock, now dead. A 6ft 5in Charolais called Field Marshall, who lived on a farm in Somerset until he died last year.

Linda Moore, who runs Pigeons Farm at Thorney with her husband Bob went to a farmers market at Melton Mowbray six years ago where they bought two calves - one for their working farm and one which they hadn't planned to buy - a five day old Friesian Holstein male calf.

Eastern Daily Press: Pigeons farm Thorney, Chocolate drop the large bullock.Chocolate drop with owner Bob Moore. Picture: Steve Williams.Pigeons farm Thorney, Chocolate drop the large bullock.Chocolate drop with owner Bob Moore. Picture: Steve Williams. (Image: Archant)

Mrs Moore said: 'I fell in love with him. His markings are really pretty. My husband thought I was mad but I had to have him.'

A £25 bill later and he was Linda's pride and joy and they took the calf home with them where he was bottle fed by visitors to the farm and then bucket fed.

A beef calf would normally sell for £300.

She said: 'He has been lavished with attention, love and plenty of food so he had a really good start in life, maybe that is why he is so big. He has continued to grow and at six years old his size often turns heads.

'One lady told me she was driving along the A47 and thought the cow was a cardboard out to advertise the farm.

'When she saw it move she nearly crashed the car. He is quite an attraction.'

When a Friesian dairy cow gives birth to a male calf they have no commercial value as they do not produce milk and are too bony to be valuable as meat - which means their days are ended very quickly and they are either shot, end up in the pet food market business or are raised for veal.

'It is rare to have bullock raised to the age he is as they have no value at all - other than the fact our visitors love him - and people like me decide to have a very large pet,' she said.

Compassion in World Farming (CWF), the RSPCA and the industry, through the Calf Stakeholder Forum, have worked towards ensuring more male dairy calves are now reared humanely for beef and the number of calves being shot at birth has greatly decreased.

A spokesman said: 'There is more work to do. Up to 99,000 are still shot every year and over 10,000 exported to the continent.'

CWF added the veal industry is becoming much more humane and the narrow veal crates, which cause tremendous suffering to calves, are now illegal in the UK and the EU.

They are, however, still used in other parts of the world, including the US.

According to an article in the Daily Telegraph about Field Marshall the big bullock, Guinness do not hold records for the world's largest cow or bullock as they do not want to encourage over feeding.