How Many Animals Per Acre?

A forage-budget calculator for goats, sheep, beef cows and horses, with the extension numbers behind it.

How the math works

Ranchers size herds with a forage budget. Start with how much dry forage your pasture grows in a year, keep only the share animals can eat without damaging the stand (about half is the classic rule), then divide by what each animal eats over the grazing season.

Animals = acres × yield per acre × utilization ÷ (daily intake × grazing days)

Daily dry-matter intake (Oklahoma State Extension): beef cow 26 lb, horse 32 lb, sheep 5 lb, goat 4 lb.
Yields vary hugely. Oklahoma State measures about 1 ton of dry matter per acre from unfertilized grass pasture, rising to 2.4-3.9 tons with 100-200 lb of nitrogen. Alberta's guide puts good-condition tame pasture in a 14-18 inch rainfall zone at about 740 lb per acre.
Hay for the months off pasture is the same daily intake, converted to baled hay at about 88% dry matter.

Quick rules of thumb to check against

Animal	Head per acre on dry pasture (Marion County, Oregon)
Horses	0.5 (2 acres each)
Cattle	0.5-1
Sheep	2-4
Goats	3-5

For horses, eXtension's horse experts suggest 1.5 to 2 acres of intensively managed pasture per horse in the East, 2 to 10 acres in the South, Midwest and West, and up to 30-38 acres on dry, unirrigated land.

This is a planning estimate. Real carrying capacity depends on your soil, rainfall, grass species and grazing management. Start below the number, watch your pasture for a season, and ask your local extension office about typical yields in your county.

Keep track of the herd

Our printable record books cover breeding, health, feed and pasture rotation: Goat Herd Record Book, Sheep Flock Record Book and Dairy Cow Record Book. Need to fence it? See The Ultimate Livestock Fencing Guide.

Browse the shop →

Common questions

How many goats can I keep per acre?

On average unfertilized pasture (about 2,000 lb of forage a year) with half of it grazed over a six-month season, an acre feeds only one or two goats; good fertilized pasture feeds three or four. Marion County, Oregon uses 3-5 goats per acre of dry pasture as a guideline. Goats also browse brush, so wooded land can carry more than grass alone suggests.

How many acres does a horse need?

eXtension's horse specialists suggest 1.5 to 2 acres of intensively managed pasture per horse in the eastern US and 2 to 10 acres elsewhere, rising to 30 acres or more on dry, unirrigated land.

What does 'take half, leave half' mean?

It is a grazing rule of thumb: let animals eat about half of the forage and leave the rest so the plants can regrow, protect the soil and survive dry spells. It sets the utilization rate at 50%.