How Many Animals Can I Graze on My Pasture?

Many landowners are interested in purchasing horses and other livestock to graze their property.  To ensure that the animals have sufficient forage to remain healthy and to ensure that grazing does not permanently damage soil and vegetation resources, animal numbers and/or grazing time must be controlled.  If either too many animals are allowed to graze or animals are allowed to graze too long, forage will be adversely affected.  Repeated removal of forage by grazing animals will weaken plants and allow less palatable plants to replace them.  Eventually all forage plants will be eliminated from a pasture if heavy grazing is left unchecked.  In the extreme, uncontrolled grazing can change a pasture with grasses and other forage into a dirt lot with a few weeds.