Our Story
Who We Are
Douwana Dorper Sheep Stud is a family-run livestock and grain enterprise established in 1999 by Peter Batten, with son's Jason and Kim, who now operate Batten Farms and Douwana Stud.
The Batten family farm was first settled by Walter John Batten at East Yuna in 1934. Three generations later the broad acre farming enterprise now comprises of 7,070 hectares with a mixed grain and livestock enterprise.
OUR BREEDING PHILOSOPHY
The Batten family has set about producing fast growing, highly muscled, low maintenance sheep for the Australian prime lamb industry. Because of the Dorpers ability to shed it's coat they require no shearing or mulesing which means less labour and chemical inputs.
Douwana has made major improvements to it’s flock since it’s initial purchase from SAABCO of 20 embryo’s from the South African Dorper studs of ‘Jordaan’, ‘Dell’ , ‘Phillips’ and ‘Cronje’. With the use of the Lambplan system, together with accurate recording and reporting, Douwana has seen fast genetic gain in heritable traits. The shedding ability, temperament, growth, muscling and fat distribution are the most important of these traits.
