| Sumario: | Three mature female goats fitted with permanent rumen cannulae were used to estimate rumen degradation kinetics of diets consisting of 70:30 (w/w) (Diet 1) and 50:50 (w/w) (Diet 2) proportions of maize stover and dolichos lablab. The DM degradation constants (a, b, c) from the equation p = a + b (1-e-ct) were 11.8, 49.0, 0.029 and 13.1, 48.5, 0.030, for Diet 1 and Diet 2, respectively. Diets were fed to pregnant does to study their effect on reproductive performance and to non-pregnant does to study effects on carcass traits. In pregnant does Diet 2 resulted in higher (p 0.05). Daily milk yield (884 vs. 434 g day-1) average daily gain of does (22.2 vs. 6.3 g day-l) and average daily gain of kids (49 vs. 21.9 g day-1) differed (p < 0.05) for Diet 2 vs. Diet 1, respectively. In non-pregnant does, the diets had no effect (p>0,05) on carcass traits and resulted in hot carcass weights of 7.1 kg and 7.6 kg, cold carcas weights of 6.9 kg and 7.4 kg and killing-out proportions of 360 g kg-1 and 384 g kg-1 for Diet 1 and Diet 2, respectively. It was concluded that diets based on maize stover and dolichos lablab could provide adequate nutrients to maintain goat productivity during the cropping season, without compromising labour availability to cropping activities.
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