How feeding clover silage cut costs in run-up to lambing

High-quality red and white clover silages have allowed a Powys sheep farm to shave nearly £2 a head from the purchased feed bill of twin-bearing ewes.

Concentrate feed was one of the biggest input costs at Awel y Grug, near Welshpool.

This is where father and son Glyn and Chris Davies produce lamb from 800 Welsh Mules, Texel-cross ewes and Nelson-type Welsh ewes.

See also: How to get the most from red clover in silage

Cost, coupled with an ambition to reduce the flock’s carbon footprint, prompted a rethink.

And their project work within the Farming Connect Our Farms network offered the opportunity to trial clover in their system.

That approach yielded significant savings in the 2025 lambing season.

Figures produced by independent sheep consultant Kate Phillips show the supplementary feed costs reduced by £1.85 a ewe in twin-bearing sheep and by £2.31 a ewe for singles.

Flock savings

For simple maths, such savings applied to a flock of 500 ewes scanning at 150%, Kate calculates that, at £330/t for an 18% compound feed and £250/t for sugar beet pulp, it would reduce the feed bill by £1,040 in that eight-week housed period.

Chris Davies © Debbie James

Further savings were gained from the labour associated with feeding, and from fewer problems at lambing, which Kate says resulted from “good, strong lambs and high-quality colostrum”.

On average, forage costs for the eight-week pre-lambing period were about £11 a ewe, costed at £149/t dry matter (DM) for the red clover silage and £142/t DM for the white clover silage.

Silage quality and ration calculations

Silage quality is the single most important factor influencing how much supplementary feed housed pregnant ewes need in the run up to lambing, Kate explains.

“For every 1MJ reduction in silage ME [metabolisable energy], ewes will need approximately an extra 10kg of compound feed or home mix,” she says.

Given the big cost difference between home-produced conserved forage, at 15p/kg DM, and compound feed, bought in at Awel y Grug in the 2025 lambing season at 35p/kg DM, it makes economic sense to make high-quality silage to reduce purchased feed use, she adds.

The trial compared red and white clover silages fed to 700 ewes in the last eight weeks of pregnancy. It also considered the impact on factor such as lamb birthweight, colostrum and lamb growth to six weeks of age.

The silages fed had an average ME of 10.8 MJ/kg DM.

“The energy and protein content varied, therefore different supplements were needed to balance energy and protein intakes.

“The high-protein samples simply needed an energy supplement like sugar beet pulp

“And the lower-protein samples some additional protein in the form of a compound feed no higher than 18% crude protein,” says Kate.

Twin-bearing ewes consumed an average of 14kg of compound at a cost of £4.62 a head, or beet pulp at £3.50 a head.

When costed at 2024-25 prices, this worked out at £5.91 a head; in previous years, purchased feed consumption averaged 18kg a ewe.

Single-bearing ewes would once have been fed 7kg of concentrates at lambing, but with higher-quality silage in the system, only yearlings had supplementary feed – 4.2kg a head of compound at £1.39 a head.

Lamb birthweights and growth rates

Ewes lambed from 28 March and Kate reports that birthweights were good and, for the size and breed of ewe, considered “above average”. 

“Single-born lambs from mature ewes, whether on red or white clover, had birthweights approaching 5kg, apart from the yearlings, which delivered slightly smaller lambs.

“But this was not unexpected, given that they were at least 12kg lighter than ewes in other single bearing groups,” Kate explains.

Red clover © Tim Scrivener

Twins born to ewes fed red clover-rich silage averaged 4.24 kg – slightly higher than the 4.18kg of the progeny born from the sheep fed silage rich in white clover.

Colostrum quality tests showed all samples exceeded the target Brix score of 26.5%.

For twins, growth rate was fastest in the lambs whose mothers had eaten red clover silage – an average of 227g/day, compared with 206g/day in the white clover group.

Finishing rates on clover leys

The trial also showed that finishing times reduced considerably when lambs grazed clover-rich leys instead of permanent pasture.

In the three groups assessed from 26 September to 5 November 2025, lambs grazing red and white clover with perennial ryegrass consistently achieved higher daily liveweight gain.

Lambs on white clover grew fastest initially – 109g/day in the two weeks to 10 October.

White clover © Tim Scrivener

“Lambs on red clover made a very slow start and seemed reluctant to eat the clover.

“But once they were through the initial two weeks, growth rate increased and lambs were finishing rapidly,” says Kate.

Weight data showed the 27 lambs that finished on 19 October grew at 27g/day between 26 September and 10 October.

Growth then increased dramatically over the next nine days, to 217g/day, demonstrating a degree of compensation once fully acclimatised to the red clover.

Only 22% of lambs remained to be finished in the red clover group on 29 October, compared with 81% in the permanent pasture group and 42% in the white clover group.

“The trial shows the benefits of red clover in increasing lamb growth rate and reducing days to slaughter, when compared with permanent pasture or white clover,” says Kate.

She added that high protein content and relatively low rumen degradability are key factors.

Grassland management skills

For Glyn and Chris, the savings highlighted by this trial have been significant.

And they estimate much bigger savings in the sheep system – as much as £8,000-£10,000/year – once other factors are taken into account.

For example, Chris points to the knowledge he has gained through the project to make better-quality permanent pasture silage, as well as cuts to the cost of production, including cutting out all creep for lambs.

“We reckon that across the business we are using a quarter of the concentrates we were feeding previously,” he says.

Stronger lamb prices had boosted income, but Chris says this was not the only reason they had seen the price paid a head increase by an average of £25 last year.

“By growing clover and improving permanent pasture and rotational grazing, we are seeing better lamb growth rates, and ewes are performing better.”