Sheep Profitability Calculator: Calculate Your Return from Finished Lambs

Sheep farming can be profitable at any scale — from a pair of Soays on a smallholding to a commercial lowland flock — but the margins are often tighter than they appear. This calculator models the complete cost and revenue picture for a finished lamb, from the purchase or rearing cost of the ewe and lamb through to the individual cuts at your target sale price.

Costs include ewe purchase or annual cost, lamb purchase or rearing cost, feed during the finishing period (hay, concentrate, grazing), veterinary and medication costs, slaughter fees, and butchery or processing costs. Each is individually editable.

Revenue is calculated from a 17-cut breakdown of the carcass, applying AHDB-derived dressing and yield percentages: 47% dressing from live weight to carcass for an ideally conditioned lamb, and 74% packaged meat yield from carcass weight. Cut prices are based on current UK retail butcher data.

A weight breakdown panel shows live weight, dressed carcass, saleable meat yield, and cost per kilogram of meat produced — giving a useful benchmark against wholesale and direct-sale prices.

Dressing percentages use AHDB Beef & Lamb KO% data for finished UK lambs (47.44% average, used as 47% in the calculator). Saleable meat yield of 74% from dressed carcass is derived from commercial UK lamb cutting studies. Cut prices are sourced from Village Butchers retail data and reflect current market prices for bone-in lamb cuts.

Enter your cost inputs in the left-hand panel. Enter your target finishing weight and the selling price for individual cuts. Click Calculate to see a full cost and revenue breakdown. The weight summary panel lets you verify that the calculated carcass and saleable meat weights match what you observe on farm. Adjust individual cut prices to reflect your actual sale prices — farm shop and direct-sale prices are typically 20–40% higher than the retail defaults.