Faecal near infrared spectroscopy (FNIRS) can be a good technique to predict functional properties like intake or in vivo digestibility of forages by small ruminants. Data were collected from 108 different digestibility indoor and outdoor trials in Senegal and France carried out from 1993 to 2013 on sheep fed with a large variety of forage species. Faecal samples were scanned by a Foss NIRSystem 5000 monochromator. Calibrations were established on indoor trials samples and performed using the modified partial least square (mPLS) procedure to estimate dry or organic matter (DMI, OMI, g/kg metabolic weight, BW0.75) intake, in vivo dry and organic matter (DMD, OMD,%) digestibility. The derived standard errors of calibration (SEC) and coefficients of determination (R2cal) were 6.52 g/kg BW0.75 and 0.81 for DMI, 5.17 g/kg BW0.75 and 0.86 for OMI, 1.50% and 0.93 for DMD and 1.95% and 0.88 for OMD, respectively. These values confirm the interest of the use of FNIRS as a tool to manage small ruminants. The results obtained show a good accuracy with values similar to other published results for intake and digestibility. Validation on outdoor trials samples show the difficulty to extrapolate the prediction of intake with limited samples number and only one pasture quality.