Assessing Grazing Capacity

The number of grazing camps on a farm should be weighed against the escalating cost of fencing material,

- Roelof Bezuidenhout.

Getting a livestock farm’s grazing capacity right is difficult, as the condition of the veld can vary considerably from season to season and year to year, depending on rainfall. Dry conditions often compel farmers to destock, whereas above-average rainfall can entice them to increase the stocking rate.

Unless they change to a high-density, quick-rotation grazing system and operate according to different rules, most farmers use the stocking rate recommended by the department of agriculture for their specific district. This is based on rainfall, as well as the grazing value of the most common forage plant species found in the veld.

In very dry areas, the stocking rate could be as light as one large stock unit (1 LSU) per 30ha, which means that you could run one head of cattle weighing 450kg on 30ha of the farm’s grazing. With small stock units (SSUs), the equivalent would be about 10 sheep or goats, each weighing 45kg, on the same land area.

A higher rainfall area would have a higher carrying capacity and could therefore have a heavier stocking rate.

While rainfall is usually the chief determinant of grazing capacity, different camps (even on the same farm) can carry different numbers of animals, depending on veld type and condition.