Field note
Grazing Management
How to Calculate Grazing Capacity on Your Veld
A practical, field-tested method for turning veld condition into a defensible stocking rate — without guesswork.
18 June 2026·2 min read
Grazing Management
When and How to Rest Your Veld
Rest is the cheapest input you have. Here is how to use it deliberately instead of by accident.
FFrits van Oudtshoorn·12 May 2026·1 min read
Grazing Management
Key takeaways
•Rest during the growing season lets key grasses flower, set seed and rebuild root reserves.
•A full-season rest every few years does more for veld recovery than continuous light grazing.
•Rotational systems work because they build rest in — not because they move animals for its own sake.
Overgrazing is rarely about too many animals in absolute terms. More often it is about animals staying too long, or returning too soon, so the most valuable grasses never get to recover. The remedy is rest — applied on purpose.
Why rest works
Perennial grasses recover by rebuilding root reserves and, periodically, by flowering and setting seed. Both need a stretch of the growing season free of defoliation. Grazing a plant repeatedly during active growth starves the roots and, over seasons, thins out the very species you want to keep.
Rest is how you bank that recovery.
When to rest
The highest-value rest is during the summer growing season, timed so key grasses can complete their cycle. A camp that is rested through one full growing season every few years will recover faster than one grazed lightly but continuously — continuous light grazing still denies plants an uninterrupted recovery window.
The goal is not to graze less. It is to graze, then leave — and mean it.
Building rest into a system
Rotational grazing is popular because it structures rest into the calendar: animals concentrate in one camp while the others recover. The system only works if the recovery periods are genuinely long enough for the season and veld condition — moving animals on a fixed schedule that ignores growth is just overgrazing with extra steps.
Plan your rest deliberately, measure the response, and let the veld tell you whether the recovery window is long enough.
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Written by
Frits van Oudtshoorn
Grassland ecologist with thirty years of veld assessment and rehabilitation experience across Southern Africa. Author of the Guide to Grasses of Southern Africa and Veld Management: Principles & Practices.