ELSEVIER Small Ruminant Research 22 (1996) l-6 Effect of season of birth and sex of kid on the production of live weaned single born kids in smallholder East African goat flocks in North East Zimbabwe L.R. Ndlovu * , L. Simela zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUT Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Uniuersity of Zimbabwe, P.O. Box MP 167Harare Zimbabwe Accepted 12 April 1995 Abstract An amalgamated flock of traditionally managed Mashona Small East African goats was monitored over a 6 yr period. Kids born in the hot dry season were heavier (P < 0.05) at 60, 90 and 180 d (6.4, 8.0 and 10.9 vs 5.7, 6.7 and 9.2 kg, respectively) than kids born in the hot wet season. Sex had no significant effect (P > 0.05) on weight increase. There was a steady decline in growth rates from age 15 d (60.2 g/d) to weaning age of 180 d (41.7 g/d). Overall, 19.4% of the 294 kids born during the study period exited the flocks before age 180 d. Major causes of exits were lost kids and predation, which together accounted for 61% of exits by kids. Seasonal effects on exits were mainly at ages below 30 d where 10.3% of kids born in the hot dry season exited compared to 4.3% and 4.6% for the hot wet and cool dry seasons. Kidding intervals were 321 (s.e. 23.6), 325 (s.e. 30.9) and 259 (s.e. 50.l)d for does kidding in the hot dry, hot wet and cool dry seasons, respectively. Due to the slow growth rates and long kidding intervals the flock productivity in terms of weaned live kid weight (kg) per doe per year was low. Keywords: Smallholder; Small East African goat; productivity; seasonal effect zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLK 1. Introduction Ninety-nine percent of the 2.6 million goats in Zimbabwe are owned by smallholder farmers. Goats are an important source of cash through live sales and protein through home slaughter (Hale, 1986). It has been estimated that 30% of exits from small- holder flocks in Zimbabwe are due to home slaugh- ter (Sibanda, 1992). In contrast, home consumption * Corresponding author: Department of Animal Science, Fac- ulty of Agriculture, University of Zimbabwe, P.O. Box MP 167, Harare, Zimbabwe. Fax: 263~4-333407/335249 00921.4488/96/$15.00 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. SSDI 0921-4488(95)00844-6 accounted for less than 1% of the exits in small- holder flocks in South West Nigeria (Reynolds and Adediran, 1994). Survival and growth of the offspring, together with parturition interval and litter size, are important determinants of productivity in a meat livestock farming system (Wilson et al., 1985). Surveys have indicated that 3560% of kids die before weaning in Zimbabwe smallholder flocks (Hale, 1986). However no detailed analysis of environmental and manage- ment factors affecting these mortality rates has been done. Effects of season of birth, litter size and sex on productivity of flocks kept on research stations in Zimbabwe have been reported by Khombe (1985)