The effect of partial replacement of king grass by banana trunk in yellow cow diet after bearing a calf
2011
Tran Sang Tao, Tran Quang Sau
A research on the effect of partial replacement of king grass by banana trunk in the yellow cow diets on performance of calves and feed cost was carried out at Nam Dong district, Thua Thien - Hue province. The result indicated that the nutrient content in banana is very low. The percentages of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP) and metabolizable energy (ME) are 5.63%, 0.56% and 0.5 MJ/kg. Meanwhile, those indicators of king grass are 15.86%, 1.44% and 1.34 MJ/kg, respectively. The replacement of 10% (diet 1) and 20% (diet 2) of king grass by banana trunk (in DM basic) in the cow diets did not have negative impact on feed intake of cows and body weight (BW) gained of young calves compared to those fed control diet, which has not contain banana trunk. The feed intake of cows at fed control diet, diet 1 and diet 2 were 5560, 5500 and 5440g/head/day, respectively. The BW gained of calves at control diet, diet 1 and diet 2 were 457.92, 413.33 and 404.58g/head/day; and feed conversion ratio (FCR) was 12.14, 13.31 and 13.45kg/kgP in DM, respectively. The feed cost for BW gained of calves at control diet, diet 1 and diet 2 was 14,634, 15, 762 and 15,708 VND/kg P.Thus, the partial replacement of king grass by banana trunk in the cow diets caused decrease in BW gained of calves and increase in feed cost for BW gained compared to calves of the cow fed control diet. The use of banana trunk to replace green feed from natural or cultivated grass is very necessary, especially in rainy season when the green feed is shortage and banana trunk is available at locality. Nevertheless, it should be combined to other feed containing high nutrients whenever banana is used in cattle diets.
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