Evaluation of Banana Plant Waste and its Silage-based Diet on Performance of Osmanabadi Goats

The fresh banana plant waste (FBPW) and its silage (FBPWS) based diets were evaluated in Osmanabadi goats for six weeks. Thirty goats (n=30) were divided into six groups of five each and allotted to one of the following diets: T₁ (FBPW plus concentrate feed mixture; CFM), T₂ (FBPWS alone), T₃ (FBPWS plus CFM), T₄ (FBPWS plus soybean meal), T₅ (FBPWS plus maize mixed with slow releasing nitrogen product) and T₆ (FBPWS plus wheat bran). Restricted feeding of red gram straw (RGS) was carried out in all groups. The crude protein content of the diets varied from 6.18 to 19.80%. The total dry matter (TDM) and crude protein (CP) intake for T₁, T₂, T₃, T₄, T₅ and T₆ groups varied from 384.75 to 554.07 and 23.79 to 95.57 g/d, respectively. Furthermore, animals in all the groups were on positive nitrogen balance with similar biochemical parameters. It was concluded that FBPW with CFM and FBPWS with SBM based diets were superior over remaining silage based diet in terms of achieving higher body weight gain.