We develop a simple bio-economic model to reflect the stocking rate decision for a profit-seeking land manager and use it to identify factors influencing the optimal stocking rate.

The optimal stocking rate will be bounded by the rate that maximizes average animal performance and that maximizing total animal production per unit of rangeland.

The optimal stocking rate tends closer toward the upper bound as the ratio of the value of the animal product increases relative to the variable costs of production.

Fixed costs or overhead do not influence the optimal stocking rate, but will affect the amount of profit.