Lamb cost of production: Lamb finishing

We present costing and performance insights for lamb finishing, using Farmbench data.

Lamb finishing results are reported by full economic net margin per head of output. Farms are ranked into three benchmark groups: the top 25%, middle 50% and bottom 25% performers.

Key findings

Cost of production per lamb is £2.75/kg for the top 25% performers
Total income for 2025 is significantly higher than the three-year average
The top 25% are the only group with a positive net margin

What does the 2024/25 season tell us?

Cost of production per lamb (£/kg) for the 2025 season is slightly higher than the three-year average. Total income has increased for the 2025 season. This aligns with the higher market prices.

On the cost side, Farmbench users saw higher total feed and forage costs for the bottom 25%; there is a significant difference in feed and forage costs between the top 25% and bottom 25%. The bottom 25% overall cost of production has been directly impacted by the variable costs and feed and forage costs.

Overall, the top 25% continue to have a positive net margin, and the middle 50% and bottom 25% have negative net margins. The main reasons for this include lower total income and higher variable costs.

Lamb finishing ranked by full economic net margin, per head of output

Figure 1. Lamb finishing cost of production and performance

Lamb finishing – cost of production		2025 Lamb finishing			3 average (2023, 2024, 2025)
Lamb finishing – cost of production		Top 25%	Middle 50%	Bottom 25%	Top 25%	Middle 50%	Bottom 25%
Key performance indicators	Cost of production per lamb (£/kg)	2.75	3.11	4.25	2.68	3.01	3.96
	Daily liveweight gain (kg/day)	0.12	0.09	-0.10	0.14	0.09	0.02
	Lamb mortality (%)	1.61	2.04	1.04	1.23	1.43	2.19
Enterprise details	Number of lambs sold/transferred	559	425	228	385	418	248
Technical performance	Feeding period (days)	90	56	85	94	69	75
	Liveweight at sale/transfer (kg/hd)	45.99	42.31	44.06	45	43	42
	Carcase weight (kg/hd)	21.07	20.17	20.67	21	21	20
	Value of all sale/transfers (£/hd)	140.85	124.33	125.37	130	114	110
	Non-forage feed fed DM (kg/hd)	14.25	17.27	55.67	10	17	44
	Harvested forage fed DM (kg/hd)	5.29	6.80	18.30	5	8	85
Income	Total income	141.02	124.61	125.79	130.19	113.88	109.92
Variable costs	Vet and medicine	1.57	1.53	4.23	1.63	1.74	4.04
	Total variable costs	99.04	103.95	125.77	92.09	98.08	110.70
	Purchased feed including minerals	5.42	5.23	20.33	3.55	5.92	16.43
	Homegrown forage variable costs	0.24	0.73	0.98	0.50	0.86	1.59
	Total feed and forage costs	5.86	6.49	21.81	5.50	8.02	18.53
Overheads	Total labour	9.57	8.93	24.19	11.96	11.65	17.10
	Total machinery and equipment	3.83	5.36	7.21	4.90	6.02	7.93
	Total property and energy costs	2.13	1.71	1.59	2.10	1.91	2.92
	Total administration costs	1.53	1.76	2.49	2.12	2.02	2.81
	Total overheads	21.46	21.01	39.65	23.99	24.75	36.21
Cost of production and margins	Full economic cost of production	126.36	131.45	187.23	121.57	130.84	165.44
Cost of production and margins	Full economic net margin	14.66	-6.84	-61.44	8.62	-16.97	-55.52

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