Ewes and wethers with oesophageal fistulas were compared with normal sheep in several experiments over three years. The grazing behaviour, herbage intake, liveweight changes, and ability to bear and rear lambs were altered little by fistulation, provided fistulas were less than 5 cm in length and closure of the fistulas was good. This was so even at a relatively high stocking rate of G ewes to the acre. These findings infer that studies with fistulated sheep provide information validly applicable to normal sheep. Fistulas that allowed good closure control (<5 cm in length) did not always allow complete recovery of ingested material. However, with incomplete recovery representative diet samples were obtained. Sampling procedures for obtaining adequately representative diet samples for individual sheep, and for obtaining estimates of diet composition for flocks of sheep on different pastures were established. The routine that must be followed to avoid obtaining untrue diet samples is to sample sheep when they are accustomed to a pasture, without prior fasting, and at the time(s) of the day when sheep are normally grazing. An hour's sampling period will collect about l/l0th of the total daily intake and longer periods may cause rumen dysfunction. Pooling data from once-a-day samples for two successive days for an individual sheep seemed to give accurate values for the whole diet over those two days for sheep set stocked on pasture. Variation between-sheep, between-days, and within-days in the nitrogen and soluble carbohydrate content and botanical composition of extrusa samples was studied. The contribution of these sources of variation to total variation differed for different diet constituents. For nitrogen, between-sheep variation was greater than between-day variation but for soluble carbohydrates the position was reversed. Within-day variation was much the same as between-day variation in a constituent. The standard deviations of nitrogen and soluble carbohydrate contents and botanical composition were large and a true mean value for any of these parameters for a flock of sheep, could only be obtained by pooling data for several sheep on several successive days.

The diet of grazing sheep was studied by using animals with oesophageal fistulas. Seasonal changes in the botanical and chemical composition of the diet when grazing Phalaris–annual grasses–subterranean clover pasture are described. The effect of grazing intensity on diet is considered. A comparison was made of diets on seven pasture species. None of the species examined had a useful qualitative superiority over Phalaris either in winter or in summer, when the digestibility of this species declines considerably. Relations between botanical and chemical composition of the diet and the pasture are discussed. Significant relations were established between the nitrogen and soluble carbohydrate contents of diets and their digestibility.

The effect of the physiological status of grazing ewes on diet selection was studied, using ewes with oesophageal fistulae. The diets of dry ewes grazing Phalaris, annual grasses and subterranean clover pastures, over a range of availabilities, were compared with those of ewes in various stages of pregnancy and lactation. There were no significant differences at any stage of reproduction in the botanical composition of the diets. However, small differences in diet digestibility, soluble carbohydrate and nitrogen content were found during pregnancy and lactation. These occurred at all levels of availability of pasture. The differences did not appear to have nutritional significance in the particular pasture ecosystems studied because levels of N, soluble carbohydrates and digestibility of the diet were such that selection for survival was unlikely to be necessary. tt is concluded that dry fistulated ewes can be used to obtain samples for assessing diet N and soluble carboliydrate contents for ewes in other physiological states. The use of in vitro digestibiiity tests of diets of dry ewes to assess diet digestibility for ewes in other physiological states may be subject to error.

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