Gauteng Smallholder May 2016 | Page 29

MYCOTOXINS The killer in your feed room M arch this year was a particularly wet month and smallholders should have been on the look-out for From page 26 your house is at the rear of the plot you should be able simply to cut off the front half in a subdivision and sell it off when the land is no longer needed, using the money thus generated either to put up additional dwellings (eg for now-adult children or grannies, or for rental) or as a retirement nest-egg. Don't over capitalise. Sure, build a comfortable house and keep it in good condition while you live there, but be aware that unless it is more than 100 years old, chances are that the developer who mould and fungi in their crops, feed and fodder. This is important because some moulds and fungi contain mycotoxins ~ chemicals buys your plot is going to demolish it before starting his own construction. At best, therefore, fixtures and fittings such as roofing, trusses, doors, flooring, windows, baths, geysers and fireplaces will finish up in a secondhand building supplies store while the rest will simply be bulldozed away and turned into landfill. The same goes for pathways and drives, swimming pools, tennis courts, stables and outbuildings, and even vegetation, trees etc. Only a sensitive developer with surplus funds is going to produced by fungi that are harmful to humans and domestic animals. These chemicals may contaminate staple foods and feeds, posing a number of significant food safety concerns. One mould species may produce many different mycotoxins, and the same mycotoxin may be produced by several species of mould. preserve trees and shrubs in a Mycotoxins may be fatal or development, and then only cause severe illness at very small concentrations, often if they are of some signifimeasured in parts per million cance and not in positions that will jeopardise or hinder (ppm) or parts per billion the development. At best, he (ppb). Even with the best quality might arrange to have the control systems in the world, trees transplanted by a professional arborist. Continued on page 29 PROPERTY 27 www.sasmallholder.co.za