Vol. 11, Special Issue 10 (2022)

The present research was conducted to evaluate the effect of banana pseudostem silage supplemented with SRNP on the performance of Osmanabadi kids. Eighteen kids of about 4-6 months age, having an initial body weight of 10.62 ± 0.09 kg were divided into three groups (T-1, T-2, and T-3) of six animals each. The growth trial of 12 week duration was carried out. Each group was allocated to one of the following three dietary treatments in a completely randomized design Treatment 1 (T1-Control) comprised jowar stover with conventional concentrate mixture. Treatment 2 (T2) comprised 50% silage plus 50% Jowar stover with conventional concentrate mixture. Treatment 3 (T3) comprised 50% silage plus 50% Jowar stover and concentrate mixture containing only maize grain supplemented with SRNP (10 g). All the three diets were made iso-nitrogenous and the goats were fed as per requirement of NRC (1981). The average body weight gain and mean finishing body weight (kg) in T1 was significantly (p<0.01) higher than T2 and T3. The total dry matter intake observed was 487.38, 474.95 and 464.89 g/d in T1, T2 and T3 groups. T1 group had significantly higher (p<0.01) total dry matter intake followed by T2 and T3. The digestibility co-efficient of DM, OM, CF, NFE and ADF were found to be non-significant among groups while CP, EE and NDF were significant. T3 had significantly (p<0.01) higher CP, EE and NDF digestibility compared to T1 and T2 groups, while T1 and T2 groups found to be non-significant among themselves. Based on the observations, it can be concluded that there is a further scope of improving the banana utilization in the form of silage either by wilting to reduce the moisture content to 70% before ensiling or addition of any dry roughage and fermentable carbohydrates to obtain good quality silage DMI.