Herding is the practice of caring for roaming groups of livestock over a large area, and often motivated by factors like theft and avoiding cattle invading neighbour’s harvests in communal areas. Most households in the rural areas of Limpopo have livestock that roam freely often causes conflicts with neighbours, and this is mostly where the foreign nationals are hired for the herding jobs. The main objective of this study was to characterise the cattle herding and management practices in semi-arid savanna communal rangelands of Botlokwa area in Limpopo Province. A semi-structured questionnaire targeting herders and livestock owners was used to collect the data. A purposive sample of 90 cattle owners and those with herding experience was considered. Data show that the majority of the cattle owners were males (64,4%). Ninety-four percent of the farmers practised cattle herding, with 67% using the multi-household herding system. Herding was mainly done by non-South Africans, with the highest majority (42.9%) being Zimbabweans, followed by Lesotho nationals at 32.1%, South Africans at 17.9% and the lowest percentage (3.6%) were Botswana and Malawi nMakhatho, 2024 Vol 17 (1)ationals. A significant number (77%) of herders spent the whole day with the animals grazing the land and had knowledge on the type of grasses available in their areas. Almost all farmers (89%) vaccinated their cattle, with 75% of farmers supplementing their cattle and applying fair breeding practices. Inferences from the data indicate the dominance of males in livestock farming and cattle herding with moderate farming practices applied in Botlokwa.