Banana (Musa acuminata) by-products and other agricultural residues such as rice straw and sugarcane top are abundant in the southern part of China, but most of them are wasted and discarded. Under this experiment, several silages containing banana by-products with other crop residues were investigated for their fermentation characteristics and feeding values to beef cattle. There were three treatments (T) as follows: T1 = fresh banana by-products (FBBP) + 4% corn meal (CM), T2 = FBBP + rice straw (RS) at 70:30 (fresh weight), T3 = FBBP + sugarcane top (SCT) at 70:30 (fresh weight). Twenty-one beef cattle bulls (220 ± 15 kg body weight) were randomly assigned to 3 groups and assigned to one of three silage treatments in a total feeding period of 237 days. Results revealed that all of the three silage mixtures had a good fermentative profile with lower pH and higher organic acids. The FBBP + CM group significantly increased DM, CP, EE, and Ca content (P < 0.05), while decreased ash, NDF, ADF, ADL, and condensed tannins (CT) content (P < 0.01). Significant effects on weight gain, feed intake, and feed efficiency were observed at the end of the experiment (P < 0.05). The FBBP + CM group also had the greatest total weight gain at 109 kg/head, twice of the FBBP + RS group (P = 0.001), as well as the greatest average daily weight gain at 0.48 kg/head/day, followed by the FBBP + SCT group at 0.30 kg/head/day and the FBBP + RS group at 0.27 kg/head/day, respectively. Cattle fed FBBP + CM silage mixture diet had better feed efficiency than the cattle fed with the other mixtures (P < 0.001). Results of body measurements showed that cattle consumed FBBP + CM silage mixture tended to have a greater body diagonal length, height at the hip, hip width, and rump length than those either consumed FBBP + RS or FBBP + SCT (P < 0.05). The findings showed promising results of banana by-products silage with other agricultural crop residues to be used for increasing beef cattle production in southern China.
Keywords: Banana by-products; Beef cattle; Growth performance; Silage.