The response of a freshly mixed oil-field cement slurry to an imposed shear strain has been experimentally studied using a method based upon concentric cylinders rheometry. At various stages of the reaction of cement with water, the slurry was deformed at quasi-static rates and the resultant shear stresses calculated. In an attempt to reduce errors due to wall slip, porous coated bobs which allow some infiltration of the slurry have been used. Stress-strain curves for the cement have been produced and the variation of yield stress with time after mixing evaluated. The experimentally determined stress-strain curves exhibited three characteristic regions. Firstly, a region of negligible stress increase at very low strain. A region of rapid linear increase in stress with strain, and finally, a post-yield strain softening region. The low strain (<0.01) response of cement slurries has been compared to that of suspensions of polyethylene beads in water with similar solids volume fraction and mean particle size. A number of similarities in the stress versus strain curves of these two granular suspensions have been observed.