Kelvin Cave Ltd to exhibit at NSA Sheep Event for the first time
Established in 1982, Kelvin Cave Ltd is a UK market leader in the development and supply of home-grown feed preservation and processing systems. It specialises in proven, effective silage preservatives and ensiling products, crimped and moist grain preservatives and grain processing machinery.
Kelvin Cave Ltd has recently conducted work at Myerscough College about the TMR (Total Mixed ration).
When the team at Myerscough College decided to add home-grown beans to their ewes’ total mixed ration, they could not have envisaged the changes it would bring. For not only has feed supply been brought in-house as planned, but the cost of feeding pregnant ewes has been cut by a massive 37%. Meanwhile, the health and performance of the flock has improved beyond expectations, nitrogen use has declined and behavioural improvements in the farm’s 1,300 ewes are making the flock easier to manage. Adding to this the long-term benefits to soil health and biodiversity known to come from legumes, and the team is planning to increase the acreage of beans across the college farms.
The process began when Andrea Gardner, director of the college’s three farms which stretch across 750 acres (303ha) north of Preston, chose to grow field beans in 2025.
Sowing just 23 acres (9ha) in late April, she initially planned for them to be combine-harvested and used as a concentrate in the ration.
However, visiting the stand of feed and forage preservation specialists, Kelvin Cave Ltd at a summer show, she saw a sample of wholecrop bean silage.
“We didn’t expect it to look anything like it did,” says the farm’s sheep lead, Ben Heaps, who also visited the event. “It looked like a chunkier version of maize silage – I admit, I was expecting more of a black mush.”
The earlier harvest also offered agronomic benefits including earlier autumn cultivations – a particular benefit in Lancashire’s high rainfall climate.
The wholecrop beans were harvested by late August 2025 using a maize header on the forager, in line with recommendations from Kelvin Cave.
The team also followed the company’s advice to use the preservative, Safesil Pro, to chop very small, consolidate well and sheet with an oxygen-impermeable membrane.
“Achieving a rapid fermentation and a stable silage is important and excluding air is a particular challenge with a stemmy crop like beans,” explains Michael Carpenter, technical director with Kelvin Cave who are partners in the NCS (Nitrogen Climate Smart) national research collaboration which seeks to increase the use and value of UK-grown legumes. "The preservative will drive a rapid pH drop and a favourable fermentation and it will minimise nutritional losses and prevent aerobic spoilage, even when the clamp is opened.”
Opening the clamp in February 2026, Ben says: “We were really surprised by how good it looked. It was even better than the forage on the stand!”
Independent nutritionist, Stephen Caldwell, was brought in to formulate a ewe ration and concurred: “This was the best sample of bean silage I had ever seen.”
“There was no heating or wastage and when we got to the back of the clamp [May 2026] there was no waste at all,” adds Ben.
Every purchased ingredient except minerals and molasses was removed from the ration and it was compiled where possible using feeds grown on farm, with the only vestige of the past being a ewe nut, fed for 24-48 hours alongside the TMR during individual penning at the time of lambing.
Pre-lambing ewe ration (kg/head/day freshweight)
- 1.25kg haylage
- 1.25kg wholecrop beans
- 0.2kg crimped wheat
- 0.2kg molasses
- 0.5kg water
- Minerals
Checks have been made along the way with colostrum quality, ewe health and lamb performance all remaining constant or improving. Most notably, twin lamb disease has been non-existent this season.
The lambing shed is more relaxed without concentrate feeding and once out at grass – around five days after lambing – the calm remains as high protein diverse swards have been created for ewes and lambs and no concentrate is fed.
“There is no mismothering and you can go into the field and actually check the sheep as they are not piling towards you,” says Ben.
A financial analysis has shown a cost of £4,353 for the 2024 ration of sheep cobs and haylage, dropping in 2025 to £3,360 for a partial TMR (still including Hi-Pro soya and sheep cobs) and finally going down to £2,756 for the full TMR in 2026 (all calculated at today’s feed prices for 800 twin-bearing ewes in the 14-day run-up to lambing). This represents an impressive 37% cut in costs.
“We were expecting a saving and this figure is even better than we hoped,” says Andrea. “However, this process has been just as much about the health of the ewes, which has dramatically improved, and the sustainability of the system, which we have shown can go hand-in-hand with productive farming.”
Myerscough College farm facts
- 750 acres (303ha) across three farms (dairy, beef, sheep and arable) rented from the Duchy of Lancaster.
- The farms are a teaching resource but also target profitability and sustainability.
- 1,300 ewes are mostly Mules and Mules x Texel; 40 pedigree Suffolks and Dutch Spotted crosses; and Lleyns for crossing with traditional Bluefaced Leicester to breed replacements.
- 23 acres (9ha) of Lynx variety field (Fava) beans grown in 2025.
- Whole crop bean yield was 16.1t/acre, harvested at a dry matter of 40-45%.
- Beans were preserved with Safesil Pro and sheeted with Farmguard.
- Crimped wheat in the TMR is preserved with CrimpSafe 300.
- Ewes receive a bean-based TMR before and immediately after lambing.
- A feed cost saving of 37% was made over 14 days before lambing.
- The bean acreage will be increased to 65 (26ha) in 2027.
