Harris and O'connor: Grazing Behaviour of Sheep on a High-country Range

The distribution of sheep was monitored for three years on part of an unimproved high-country summer range composed of several land units with different phases of degraded tall tussock and short tussock grassland. Sheep distribution was found to be non-random and to vary seasonally. Available dry matter and water content of inter-tussock vegetation were monitored on well vegetated land units for one season. The sheep tended to move from the study area as the available inter-tussock herbage matured and declined in water content and quantity, up to mid-January. Those sheep remaining on the study area and additional sheep liberated onto the range in late February tended to show an increased preference for a damper area and an adjacent land unit. Factors apparently influencing this behaviour are discussed. The proportion of daylight hours the sheep spent grazing was consistently high but with an apparent decline in autumn.