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MusaBanana, plantain, cooking bananaA fast-growing plant 3-5 m high with herbaceous stem. The fruits grow in bunches of up to 200 banana fingers each. The banana is picked green and ripened in sheds. Large quantities of rejected bananas are available for animal feed in exporting countries. Normally about 4% of the crop is rejected, but up to 50% of the harvest is wasted in some countries. When the bunch has been harvested, the pseudostem (trunk) of the plant is cut down to allow the emergence of new shoots. The dry matter of the green immature banana consists mainly of starch (72%), which with ripening changes into simple sugars (sucrose, glucose, etc.). Bananas contain tannins which may affect the digestibility of protein in the diet. Ripe bananas are of interest as a source of easily available energy in the feeding of urea. USES. Cattle relish bananas, which are usually fed green, chopped and sprinkled with salt as they contain very little sodium. Bananas are less palatable to sheep and goats. They are low in fibre, protein and mineral content and should therefore be fed together with grass or source other roughage as well as a protein supplement and mineral mix. A good silage can be made from equal parts of chopped green bananas and grass or from chopped green bananas mixed with 1.5% molasses. Bananas are mainly used in feeding pigs, which eat them with relish when they are ripe. The organic matter digestibility of green bananas in pig diets is 70% for the whole green fruit, 90% for the peeled green fruit and even higher for ripe fruit. Bananas should therefore be allowed to ripen before they are fed to pigs; however, ripe bananas fed in large amounts may cause diarrhoea. Banana are usually fed to pigs ad lib with about 1.2 kg of concentrate (10-22% crude protein). There seems to be no advantage in cooking the bananas prior to feeding. Pigs fed bananas tend to have less carcass fat. Mature plantains can be fed in the same way as bananas. Only the unripe banana and plantain can easily be dried. The meal can be used as a substitute for 70-80% of the grain in pig and dairy diets with little change in performance. Banana meal has been used in poultry diets, but high levels depress growth and reduce feed efficiency. Not more than 5% or 10% of the grain portion of chick and poultry diets should be replaced by banana meal. Banana leaves can be used as an emergency feed for ruminants; however, owing to the presence of tannins the digestibility progressively decreases as the level of banana leaves is increased in the ration. Banana pseudostems (trunks) are used as animal feed in many countries. Pseudostems can be fed fresh or chopped and ensiled to cattle and pigs. They are easily ensiled if chopped and mixed with an easily fermentable carbohydrate - for instance, molasses or rice bran (4-8%); the silage is of good quality. Banana peels are very rich in active tannins when green and thus cannot be fed until they are completely yellow, when the tannins are bound in an inactive form.
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