• Finishing lambs on forage crops like kale, turnips, swedes, or forage rape is common in autumn and winter. These crops provide high-quality nutrition when grass is limited. 

Key Features: 

• Lambs graze directly on planted forage crops, which are often used in crop rotations or as cover crops. 

• These crops are typically planted after harvesting cereals and provide a reliable feed source in colder months. 

Advantages: 

• Utilises land efficiently by integrating crop and livestock production. 

• Provides a high-energy, protein-rich diet during the winter when grass is scarce. 

Challenges: 

• Requires careful management of soil and crop rotations to prevent damage to land. 

• Costs associated with establishing forage crops and fencing for strip or paddock grazing.

Overview:

• An indoor finishing system, where lambs are housed and fed a high-energy diet based on concentrates. It is used to achieve consistent growth rates and market readiness, particularly during the winter months. 

Key Features: 

• Lambs are housed indoors and fed concentrates with some roughage feed available, e.g hay or straw.  

• This system allows precise control over weight gain and fat deposition, ensuring lambs meet market specifications. 

Advantages: 

• Faster growth rates compared to grazing systems, reducing the time to market. 

• Consistent quality and size of finished lambs, ideal for meeting specific market demands. 

• Less weather-dependent, especially in winter when grass quality declines. 

• No effect on the land which can have a break over the Winter months ready for lambing in the Spring.  

Challenges: 

• Higher costs associated with feed, housing, and labour. 

• Intensive systems can raise concerns about animal welfare in regard to lameness.  

• On hill and upland areas, particularly in Scotland, Wales, and northern England, lambs are often tried to be finished on rough grazing or low-quality pastures. These areas are characterised by poor soil fertility and harsher climates. 

Key Features: 

• Lambs graze on hardy grasses, heather, and other low-quality forage, often in extensive systems. 

• Supplementary feeding may be used in late autumn or winter to aid finishing. 

Advantages: 

• Utilises marginal land that is unsuitable for intensive farming. 

• Produces lean meat with distinctive flavour, often marketed as high-quality or premium due to the extensive nature of the system. 

Challenges: 

• Much slower growth rates due to the lower nutritional value of upland grazing. 

• Lambs may need to be brought down to lowland pastures or finished indoors for the final stage of growth as the forage available is not enough.  

Overview:

• Creep feeding is commonly used to accelerate the growth of young lambs before weaning so that they get a good start into the finishing stage. This involves providing lambs with high-energy feed that is inaccessible to ewes, which they will then continue to eat after weaning, alongside grass.  

Key Features: 

• Creep feed consists of concentrates, allowing lambs to gain extra nutrition while still suckling. 

• Typically used in lowland farms to enhance early growth, particularly in spring-born lambs. 

Advantages: 

• Faster growth and earlier finishing, reducing the time lambs need on pasture. 

• Less reliance on ewes’ milk, allowing lambs to achieve higher weaning weights. 

Challenges: 

• Higher feed costs and additional infrastructure to manage the creep feeding system. 

• Requires careful balancing to prevent lambs from becoming too fat early in life.