The current experiment was conducted to study the effect of different doses of tannic acid, a hydrolysable tannin, on ruminal degradation and post-ruminal digestion of treated soya bean meals (SBM) in sheep. Samples of SBM were prepared by spraying 100 g SBM with 100 ml distilled water containing 0, 1, 5, 10, 15 or 25 g of commercial tannic acid (S0, STA1, STA2, STA3, STA4 and STA5, respectively). Three ruminally cannulated ewes, that had never consumed tannic acid previously, were used to determine in situ degradability of tannic acid-treated SBM. Intestinal digestibility of protein remaining after 16 h rumen incubation was estimated in vitro. Extent of rumen degradation of SBMs was significantly (P < 0·05) affected by the tannic acid treatment. All doses of tannic acid used in this experiment, even the lowest one (STA1), significantly decreased the extent of N degradation but only doses higher than that used to treat STA3 reduced the extent of DM degradation. This reduction in the extent of DM and N degradation was mainly due to a marked decrease in the immediately degradable fraction (a), which was observed in all treated SBM, and to a lower rate of degradation (c), observed in meals STA3, STA4 and STA5. Intestinal digestion of the non-degraded protein was decreased (P < 0·05) by treatment with the two highest doses of tannic acid (those used to treat meals STA4 and STA5). It was therefore concluded that tannic acid can exert a negative effect both on rumen degradation and on intestinal digestion of SBM, this effect being clearly dependent on the dose used to treat the SBM.