Sustainable animal production on pasture planted on rehabilitated mine land will only be possible if the optimal stocking rate for animal and pasture production is determined. A grazing trial was conducted on tall fescue, established on rehabilitated mine land and irrigated with mine waste water. The aims of this study were to quantify: a) animal performance and nutritive value at different levels of nitrogen (N) fertilization during pasture establishment, and b) intake, animal performance (defined as average daily gain; ADG) and nutritive value when different stocking rates were applied. This study was done during two seasons: season one in winter (6 June -16 July 2008) and season two in spring (28 Aug – 6 Nov 2008). In terms of post mining land use this study supplied valuable information on potential livestock production. The higher level of N fertilization applied during the winter of 2007 at pasture establishment resulted in a significantly (P < 0.05) higher crude protein (CP) concentration a year later compared to the lower levels of N fertilization. During the winter grazing season the pasture contained an average of 83.4 g CP kg-1 dry matter (DM), 601.9 g NDF kg-1 DM, 6.2 g Ca kg-1 DM and 1.7 g P kg-1 DM, the average in vitro organic matter digestibility (IVOMD) was 642.2 g kg-1 OM and the average leaf: stem ratio was 88:12. The ADG of crossbred weaner calves grazing the low N fertilization (LN), low stocking rate (LS) paddock (229.1 g day-1) was significantly (P < 0.05) lower than the ADG of weaner calves grazing the LN, high stocking rate (HS) and the high N (HN), LS respectively. The ADG of the animals in the HN, LS paddock was 482.7 g day-1 and in the LN, HS paddock was 310.6 g day-1. The low ADG for the LS treatment was due to the low CP concentration of this paddock, with values as low as 55.1 g CP kg-1 DM recorded during the winter grazing period. Low pasture nutritive value during winter can potentially limit animal production.spring grazing season the pasture contained an average of 101.0 g CP kg-1 DM, 639.1 g NDF kg-1 DM, 8.9 g Ca kg-1 DM and 2.1 g P kg-1 DM. The average leaf: stem ratio was 85:15, IVOMD was 717.5 g kg-1 OM and effective DM degradability (in situ) was 56.1 %. The average OM digestibility estimated with the alkane method varied between 720.8 to 768.3 g kg-1 depending on the alkane used and weather a correction was made for the faecal recovery of the alkane used. On average the forage available in the paddock with the LS had a significantly (P < 0.05) higher CP concentration, leaf: stem ratio and IVOMD, with a significantly (P < 0.05) lower NDF concentration than the HS paddock. This is probably due to the fact that in the HS paddock forage with a high nutritive value was removed at a higher rate. Irrespective of the calculation used, digestibility calculated by the alkane method did not differ significantly (P > 0.05) between paddocks at any time period. The average intake in the paddock with medium grazing stocking rate (MS) was significantly (P < 0.05) higher than the average for the other paddocks. The paddock with the MS was managed to supply a pasture DM allowance of 2.5 % body weight (BW). The DM intake over the spring season was 2.2 % BW. The MS treatment supplied sufficient plant material without resulting in large accumulation of plant material. The ADG for the spring season was 110.5 g day-1 and averages for each paddock did not differ significantly (P > 0.05) from each other. During the / Dissertation (MSc Agric)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Animal and Wildlife Sciences / unrestricted