If you are one of the people who can no longer afford beef due to its new space going prices you can blame the drought for that. According to a report in the Sunday news, the severe 2018-19 drought has decimated the national cattle herd with cattle dropping dead like flies in Matebeleland.

According to the publication close to 5 000 cattle have died in Matabeleland South with the situation being no different in the much drier Southern parts of the country.

Reported cattle deaths so far

Beitbridge 1 057
Insiza 918
Gwanda 600
Matobo 524
Mangwe 498
Umzingwane 300

This is out of a total herd of 658 518 cattle in the province.

Blame drought and lack of foresight

The government has been tightly controlling the economy in every aspect which has left so much on their plate as they juggle shortage after shortage. This means some balls have dropped. The severity of the drought made it obvious there was a need for supplementary feed and borehole drilling in these areas in order to protect the national herd.

Thanks to corruption and incompetence little have been done. The dire situation means it has now become an emergency which will cost even more to fix.

Expect beef prices to go up even further, shortages to persist

Beef prices are hight now but given this news expect them to go up even further and shortages to set in although there might be a slight bump in supply as farmers cull their herds to avert disaster before the real shortages sets in.