This presentation is an attempt to review some aspects of nutrient utilisation in goats, and to highlight some possible applications of recent findings from studies in other ruminants to the nutrition of adult goats. Overall efficiency of nutrient utilisation could be improved in goats, even submitted to extreme phases of nutrition, by better control of glucose and amino-acid metabolism. Provision of excess dietary protein during a few days prior to mating might improve fertility. Provision of energy in excess during the first stages of pregnancy could be deleterious, whereas shortage of energy, commencing after 30 days of pregnancy can be tolerated, if compensation can be supplied during late-pregnancy. In constantly-well-fed animals, some extent of maternal lipolysis at the end of pregnancy might augment litter-weight and survival. Manipulations of ruminal starch degradability can improve glucose production and utilisation, thus affecting litter weight and milk production positively, but feeding synchronous, compared with asynchronous sources of protein and energy does not improve milking performance in goats. Dietary ruminally undegradable sources of protein do not appear to modify greatly protein or casein in milk. Percentage of fat in milk increases when goats are fed ruminally inert dietary fat. The extrapolation to goats of findings from studies carried out in other species, or even from different breeds of goats, must be done carefully, owing to differences between species of ruminants and within goat genotypes, in the partition of nutrients.