A Welsh sheep farm has come through a summer drought on lucerne. At Newton Farm, Brecon, Powys, Tudor Roderick and his parents Richard and Helen scaled the drought-tolerant legume up from 6.9 hectares (17 acres) to 12 hectares (30 acres), and while record temperatures and no rain to speak of from June to mid-August halted grass growth across the farm, the lucerne was grazed and grew back.

The farm runs 1,100 Romney-cross ewes with 300 retained ewe lambs and 120 Stabiliser cows on 344 hectares, half owned and half rented. Twin lambs on the lucerne gained an average of 320 grams a day up to weaning and were sold at an average deadweight of 18.5 kilograms, at a time when, in Roderick's words, the rest of the farm had "literally shut down".

The crop was first sown in 2024 with support from the Farming Connect Try Out Fund, which pays for Welsh farmers to test ideas, and a second field followed a year later. Most of the area is Luzelle, a variety bred for grazing with a flatter crown, more shoots, less fibre and more protein than cutting types; a small share is the high-yielding cutting variety Artemis. Roderick undersows the lucerne in barley together with timothy and white clover, a mix he says balances the diet and guards against bloat and some clostridial diseases.

Maturity matters. The leys in their third season did best in 2026, because a fully established plant can root to three metres and mine water deep in the soil; in the first two years the crop was still building roots and slowed markedly in the dry spell of 2025. This year growth was so strong that one paddock had to come out of the rotation because the sheep could not keep up.

Grazing is in one-hectare paddocks, with mobs building from 40 or 50 sets of twins at lambing to 300 ewes and more than 500 lambs by weaning. Lucerne averages 24 per cent crude protein and 12 megajoules of metabolisable energy per kilogram of dry matter. The Rodericks graze once with tupping ewes in November and then leave the crop until mid- to late March — winter grazing on wet ground, Roderick reckons, would kill it. He has also stopped chasing low residuals, having found that leaving a stalky field speeds regrowth.

The one problem has been scald, because the stalky crop gets between lambs' cleats; foot-bathing puts it right. The bloat everyone warned of has not appeared. The family now wants lucerne on 15–20 per cent of the farm as insurance against the drier summers they expect, keeping perennial ryegrass and clover for wet years. Only a little is baled: "The quality is way too good," Roderick says, preferring to feed it to lactating ewes when they need it.

Cattle are not grazed on it, since the bull beef are finished indoors on cereals at 13–14 months, though a switch to steers would prompt a trial with a slow transition. Independent forage specialist Francis Dunne advised the family through the Try Out Fund, which reopens for applications on 2 December. Debbie James reported for Farmers Weekly.

Source: Farmers Weekly