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Lamb cost of production: Breeding flocks
We present costing and performance insights for breeding flocks, using Farmbench data.
What does the 2023/24 season tell us?
Cost of production per lamb reared ranged from £2.01 per kg for the top 25% performers to £4.26 for the bottom 25%.
Factors driving this disparity include a higher income for the top 25% as well as lower variable, feed and overhead costs.
We have seen a rise in total income in 2024 for the top 25% and middle 50% performers in comparison to the three-year average. On the cost side, total feed and forage costs have remained stable across all performance groups.
Given that costs have been rising over the last three years, overhead costs have remained stable, and the 2024 data is very similar to the three-year average. Labour and machinery costs continue to be the larger proportion of the total overheads.
Both the top 25% and middle 50% performers have positive net margins in 2024. The net margins have increased for 2024 vs the three-year average.
Breeding flock enterprises ranked by total economic margin
The table below shows 2024 breeding flocks and the three-year average cost of production and net margin.
| Breeding flock: Cost of production | Per ewe put to the ram | Lambing 2024 | 3 year average (2022, 2023, 2024) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 25% | Middle 50% | Bottom 25% | Top 25% | Middle 50% | Bottom 25% | ||
| Key performance indicators | Cost of production per lamb reared (£/kg) | 2.01 | 2.77 | 4.26 | 1.94 | 2.72 | 4.46 |
| Lambs reared per 100 ewes put to the ram (%) | 142.36 | 135.47 | 122.36 | 146.59 | 135.26 | 131.26 | |
| Daily liveweight gain for reared lambs (kg/day) | 0.21 | 0.19 | 0.19 | 0.21 | 0.20 | 0.20 | |
| Enterprise details | Number of ewes put to ram | 793 | 626 | 234 | 868 | 597.20 | 196 |
| Total forage area allocated to enterprise (ha) | 115.92 | 90.52 | 54.52 | 124 | 93.99 | 56 | |
| Number of weeks housed (weeks) | 5 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 7 | |
| Technical performance | Ewe lambs tupped (%) | 7.22 | 6.95 | 1.30 | 6.10 | 5.09 | 5.72 |
| Ewe to ram ratio | 45.15 | 47.22 | 38.77 | 47.59 | 45.18 | 34.35 | |
| Scanning percentage (%) | 172.03 | 168.88 | 155.03 | 174.55 | 166.55 | 158.26 | |
| Empty ewes (%) | 7.04 | 5.58 | 5.10 | 5.50 | 5.25 | 6.96 | |
| Age at sale (days) | 171 | 175 | 170 | 165 | 171 | 180 | |
| Weight produced per forage hectare (kg/ha lwt) | 347 | 316 | 169 | 375.52 | 290.13 | 183.28 | |
| Non-forage feed fed DM (kg/hd) | 22.37 | 25.15 | 27.02 | 14.61 | 24.71 | 50.00 | |
| Harvested forage fed DM (kg/hd) | 48.04 | 58.10 | 50.69 | 55.38 | 68.09 | 63.67 | |
| Creep feed fed (kg/hd) | 7.16 | 5.27 | 5.61 | 4.85 | 7.35 | 6.95 | |
| Income (£/ewe put to the ram) | Total income | 170.71 | 149.07 | 113.46 | 163.40 | 136.08 | 119.20 |
| Variable costs (£/ewe put to the ram) | Vet and medicine | 8.75 | 8.87 | 10.07 | 8.38 | 9.25 | 12.70 |
| Bedding | 1.24 | 1.78 | 2.48 | 1.53 | 1.28 | 1.88 | |
| Total variable costs exc. feed | 32.12 | 43.85 | 59.70 | 33.85 | 41.01 | 56.78 | |
| Purchased feed including minerals | 11.61 | 13.66 | 15.80 | 8.17 | 14.06 | 26.01 | |
| Home-grown feed | 1.33 | 0.45 | 0.00 | 1.14 | 0.76 | 0.25 | |
| Home-grown forage variable costs | 4.21 | 5.63 | 6.58 | 4.65 | 6.00 | 7.70 | |
| Total feed and forage costs | 20.48 | 20.87 | 22.59 | 17.44 | 22.47 | 37.50 | |
| Overheads (£/ewe put to the ram) | Total labour | 18.81 | 28.11 | 37.44 | 22.48 | 26.74 | 49.96 |
| Total machinery and equipment | 13.10 | 16.15 | 24.31 | 11.78 | 16.57 | 26.66 | |
| Total property and energy costs | 3.62 | 5.39 | 7.64 | 3.92 | 5.02 | 9.03 | |
| Total administration costs | 3.89 | 5.47 | 9.37 | 3.83 | 5.48 | 12.50 | |
| Total overheads | 60.87 | 76.90 | 105.60 | 60.54 | 74.95 | 127.85 | |
| Cost of production and margins (£/ewe put to the ram) | Full economic cost of production | 113.47 | 141.61 | 187.89 | 111.82 | 138.44 | 222.13 |
| Full economic net margin | 57.24 | 7.46 | -74.42 | 51.58 | -2.36 | -102.93 | |
Characteristics of top- and bottom-performing beef and sheep farms
Our insights are informed by a statistical examination of the Farm Business Survey and a case study analysis that identifies what the key actions of top performers take that promote success.
The study also offers a list of considerations for ways in which beef and sheep farm businesses can improve their margins.
Understanding the data
Farmbench is an online benchmarking tool that allows you to compare your farm to similar businesses, facilitated by AHDB and our Farmbench managers.
The latest production year insights have been pulled from the tool and displayed below.
A ‘production year’ means a 12-month period which covers all financial and physical activity relating to the production of the annual crop (plant or animal) from an enterprise. For example, the 2023/24 production year is associated with 2024 lambing, and calving for autumn 2023 and spring 2024.
For 2023/24 insights, the Farmbench tool gathered data from a total of 97 farms across England.
This 2023/24 total included 77 suckler herd, 31 finishing beef and 58 store beef enterprises, and 84 breeding flock and 56 finishing lamb enterprises.
All the data has been averaged into three benchmark groups and ranked by full economic net profit margin: top 25%, middle 50% and bottom 25% performers.