The special senses in grazing animals. I. Sight and dietary habits in sheep

Abstract

The diets and productivity of sheep unable to see what they ate (blinkered) and control (unblinkered) sheep were compared in a number of experiments. Diet composition differed for control and blinkered sheep under some pasture conditions. These differences are attributed to the use of sight by sheep to orientate themselves whilst grazing; habit of grazing was altered in blinkered sheep. Preference ranking of species was unaltered by blinkering sheep.