Commentary
Occasionally we run across terminology that is foreign to us. In the articles here, we share two such terms: freemartin and Peter Pan heifers.
Source: FEEDLOT, June 21, 2022. Link. Twins calves can be a challenge. But when one is a bull calf and the other a heifer often the heifer is a freemartin. Freemartin heifers are females with an improperly developed reproductive tract, incapable of becoming pregnant
Source: Hoard’s Dairyman, April 6, 2023. Link. Gavin Staley, BVSc, calls dairy heifers that enter the herd before reaching full mature size Peter Pan heifers, “they haven’t yet grown up, and once they are milking, the development they should have experienced can’t be made up.”