EFFECTS OF FEEDING VARYING AMOUNTS OF A GRAIN FORAGE DIET DURING LATE-GESTATION AND LACTATION ON THE PERFORMANCE OF MATEBELE GOATS/

Individually-penned Matebele does were randomly allocated to three die tary treatments during gestation (0.66, 0.50 and 0.33 MJ ME/kg metabol ic weight) and subsequently offered either 0.95 or 0.6 MJ ME/kg metabo lic weight during lactation in Gwanda, south west of Zimbabwe, in 1990 . The diets offered consisted of veld and lucerne hay and maize grain in proportions of 0.56, 0.24 and 0.2, respectively. Reducing the amoun t of energy consumed from 0.58 to 0.26 MJ ME/kg metabolic weight in th e last 7 weeks of gestation resulted in does suffering a net loss in b ody weight (-2 kg) and body condition score, although it had no signif icant effect on the birth weight of single kids. Reducing feeding in t he first 15 weeks of lactation from 0.95 to 0.59 MJ ME/kg metabolic bo dy weight only had minor effects upon liveweight and body condition sc ore change of the does and had no effect on the growth of kids. Amount of feed offered in lactation had a positive effect upon milk yield an d there was a trend for yields to increase proportionally to pre-partu m dietary intake. Diet had no effect upon milk composition. It was con cluded that the benefits of supplementary feeding are small and may no t justify the extra costs entailed in smallholder systems.