Twenty sheep, ranging in body mass from 25 to 62 kg, were slaughtered to compare two methods of estimating the chemical composition of the carcass. One half of each carcass was ground in a carcass grinder equipped with a 6 mm sieve and a representative sample taken. The other half was frozen. The complete frozen half was sawed at 25 mm intervals into `chop` portions with a bandsaw. The tissue residue in the saw was collected. Moisture, fat, protein and ash percentages of the samples were determined. The mean composition of the ground carcass and sawdust samples were respectively: moisture: 56.4 and 55.0% (r2 = 0.737); fat: 21.2 and 23.1 % (r2 = 0.923); protein: 16.6 and 16.1% (r2 = 0.154) and ash: 4.7 and 5.5% (r2 = 0.235). The correlations between sampling techniques compare well with similar comparisons obtained from studies with cattle and pigs. This suggests that a reliable estimate of the fat and moisture content of the carcass can be obtained from the sawdust residue. The technique can be recommended for use in growth and feeding trials with sheep at locations where sophisticated instruments are not available to measure carcass composition.