Your question could have many answers. The correct amount depends on your pastures and how you manage them. Remember that you are growing plants and allowing the cattle to harvest them and not the other way around. Rotational graizing of small paddocks can let someone stock more cattle per area. Turning them out in large pasture will reduce the amount of animals that can be raised. Fertilizatiion of pasture and plant makeup will also effect stocking ratios.

In general (and only in general) try about one cow/calf pair for every 2 acres of good pasture if you rotate them into new pastures every 1 to 3 weeks. That recomendation is for here in MO. Woods should not be pastured.

Other things to think about. Every pound of feed that you need to harvest and store or buy, cost about 3 times more then if you could stretch the graizing season. Stock piling of pastures for winter graizing will pay off in big dividends. Reducing cow numbers and stretching the graizing season may make you more money then increasing cow numbers and buying feed. More equipment you buy, the more fix money you will have in each head and the less return you will make.

The best bet is to talk to some extensiion agents or some proven farmer in the neighborhood to ask about stocking rate and your pasture's management. Also, start reading all you can about cattle management and pasture management.

Silage is generally expensive type of feed and requires much labor and equipment to feed. Hay will be cheaper and fed with some minerals (perhaps some protein as well) will be adequate to carry cows through the nongraizing periods.