I have started a new category of tools on the site, Farming, aimed at South African livestock farmers, and the first one is live.
https://southafricafacts.co.za/stocking-rate-calculator-south-africa/
The question it answers is simple to ask and surprisingly easy to get wrong, how many cattle, sheep or goats can your farm actually carry without wearing the veld down over time. Most rules of thumb floating around are either a single national average that is wrong for most of the country, or they quietly assume your veld is in perfect condition.
This one starts from the Department of Agriculture’s own long term grazing capacity norms, the hectares per Large Stock Unit figures gazetted under the Conservation of Agricultural Resources Act. Your veld type does the heavy lifting, grassveld, bushveld or Karoo, rather than your province, because provinces span more than one veld type and the map genuinely varies from one point to the next more than it varies between provinces.
From there you adjust honestly for two things. Veld condition, because the official figures already assume good condition, so if yours has thinning cover, bare patches or bush encroachment it carries fewer animals than the base number suggests. And the season, because a below average or drought year pulls the safe number down, in line with how commercial farmers destock ahead of a bad year rather than after the damage is done.
Mixed herds of cattle, sheep and goats all convert onto one Large Stock Unit scale, and the result keeps two numbers separate on purpose, a recommended stocking figure with a buffer built in for a dry year, and the maximum ceiling you should never run above even briefly.
A few honest caveats. It is a planning estimate, not your legally gazetted grazing capacity figure, that one is set for your specific district and any exception needs a veld condition survey by a registered pasture scientist. And goats are browsers rather than grazers, so a grass based figure fits them less neatly than cattle and sheep, treat that number as a rough starting point only.
If you farm livestock, I would really value a sanity check from people who actually know their veld, does the recommended versus maximum split make sense, and are the condition and rainfall adjustments in the right ballpark for your area. More farming tools are on the list if this one is useful.