Data sharing for a PhD project of Quentin Lardy at NIBIO Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research, As, Norway, a student with Vibeke Lind and Grete Jorgensen at NIBO. The data that will be shared includes dry matter intake (DMI) in the days before and during respiration chamber measurements, and methane production data on the respiration chamber days. The data is from two CPT trials (CPT27,28,29 and CPT32,33,34,35) where low and high CH4 yield selection lines sheep were fed ad libitum pasture in repeated periods. This will be combined with data from NIBO, Norway, and from other international contributors.

The objectives with the data is to prepare a paper that describe the pattern of DMI of sheep when fed ad libitum before and in respiration chambers and determine the repeatability of this pattern and the correlation between management practice and DMI.
 
The aim of this first paper is to look at voluntary feed intake before and during the individual days when sheep are in RC.
•	We hypothesize that the change of environment (between the adaptation period and the RC experiment) is the main factor explaining drop of DMI on the first day. We can also investigate what type of management is reducing this diminution (individual feeding during adaptation Vs group feed)
•	Focusing on the best practice in use of sheep in RC and potentially detect a drop of DMI during the early times in the RC. 
•	Though this collaboration, It would be interesting to write a paper looking to recommended practices before and in RC. 

The benefit for New Zealand is that we will get information which might improve our methane measurement protocol in future and improve animal welfare during methane measurement trials. 
