Lamb cost of production: Breeding flocks

We present costing and performance insights for breeding flocks, using Farmbench data.

Breeding flock results are reported by full economic net margin per ewe put to the ram. Farms are ranked into three benchmark groups: the top 25%, middle 50% and bottom 25% performers.

Key findings

Cost of production per lamb reared is £2.02/kg for the top 25% performers, compared with £5.80/kg for the bottom 25%
The top 25% performers are selling lambs younger
Both the top 25 and middle 50% have positive net margins

What does the 2024/25 season tell us?

Cost of production per lamb reared (£/kg) for the top 25% is £2.02 and is £5.80 for the bottom 25%. Factors that are driving this include a higher income for the top 25% as well as lower variable and overhead costs.

We have seen a rise in total income in 2025 for the top 25%, middle 50% and bottom 25% performers in comparison to the three-year average. On the cost side, total feed and forage costs have remained stable across the top 25% and middle 50%.

Overhead costs have risen slightly across the breeding flocks data. Labour and machinery costs continue to be the larger proportion of the total overheads.

Both the top 25% and middle 50% users have positive net margins in 2025. The net margins have increased for 2025 compared with the three-year average.

Breeding flock enterprises ranked by total economic margin, per ewe put to the ram

Figure 1. Lamb cost of production and performance in breeding flocks

Breeding flock – cost of production		Lambing 2025			3-year average (2023, 2024, 2025)
Breeding flock – cost of production		Top 25%	Middle 50%	Bottom 25%	Top 25%	Middle 50%	Bottom 25%
Key performance indicators	Cost of production per lamb reared (£/kg)	2.02	2.77	5.80	1.98	2.84	5.19
	Lambs reared per 100 ewes put to the ram (%)	150.79	140.45	122.59	145.62	135.13	126.39
	Daily liveweight gain for reared lambs (kg/day)	0.22	0.19	0.20	0.21	0.19	0.19
Enterprise details	Number of ewes put to ram	614	649	162	739	596	210
	Total forage area allocated to enterprise (ha)	91.91	104.52	45.98	115	93	67
	Number of weeks housed (weeks)	3	4	3	5	5	4
Technical performance	Ewe lambs tupped (%)	6.48	5.75	13.02	8.19	5.00	6.68
	Ewe to ram ratio	44.54	50.24	39.60	47.26	45.63	37.47
	Scanning percentage (%)	172.80	169.40	141.78	171.68	167.01	152.96
	Empty ewes (%)	5.14	4.70	7.55	6.26	5.37	6.41
	Age at sale (days)	169	174	176	170.22	171.31	176.79
	Weight produced per forage hectare (kg/ha lwt)	375	285	150	343.52	291.71	130.97
	Non-forage feed fed DM (kg/hd)	27.21	26.00	38.14	19.42	27.96	34.28
	Harvested forage fed DM (kg/hd)	80.37	60.55	73.66	63.54	63.33	67.65
	Creep feed fed (kg/hd)	10.52	2.82	1.11	6.35	6.26	5.85
Income	Total income	196.83	161.36	143.67	172.55	146.27	122.33
Variable costs	Vet and medicine	7.72	10.76	14.79	7.80	9.59	11.91
	Bedding	1.28	1.17	0.68	1.36	1.41	1.34
	Total variable costs	37.92	46.94	64.09	35.06	42.88	63.71
	Purchased feed including minerals	11.95	12.18	16.61	9.84	14.60	17.51
	Home-grown feed	2.14	0.02	0.00	1.22	0.77	0.08
	Home-grown forage variable costs	7.21	5.07	12.45	4.97	5.82	7.42
	Total feed and forage costs	21.91	18.48	35.04	18.88	22.45	30.47
Overheads	Total labour	20.68	24.14	66.30	21.25	26.73	50.63
	Total machinery and equipment	14.23	16.07	36.13	11.92	16.58	30.83
	Total property and energy costs	4.60	4.68	8.14	4.02	5.19	9.07
	Total administration costs	4.66	5.61	10.43	4.13	5.53	10.69
	Total overheads	66.02	77.61	175.94	61.24	78.57	143.72
Cost of production and margins	Full economic cost of production	125.84	143.04	275.08	115.19	143.91	237.90
Cost of production and margins	Full economic net margin	70.99	18.32	-131.41	57.36	2.36	-115.57

Source: Farmbench

Understanding the data

Farmbench is an online benchmarking tool that allows you to compare your farm to similar businesses. 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 2024/25 production year is associated with 2025 lambing and calving for autumn 2024 and spring 2025.

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.

The Farmbench service will be closing on 30 September 2026. The Farmbench website will remain available to users until then to complete activity relating to the 2024/25 production year and to download reports and data.

Explore our FAQs on the closure of the Farmbench service

Lamb cost of production and performance