Carrying capacity is important for understanding ecosystem balances and sustainable population dynamics. The purpose of this study was to estimate the carrying capacity of the Kuiseb River ecosystem for Topnaar livestock, and to better understand the relationship between spatial distributions of cattle and pod-producing tree species. Two different census methods and body condition scores were used to assess the abundance and relative health of cattle in the system, and a series of tree productivity measurements were used to extrapolate the most productive areas of the riverbed. We found that cattle abundance increased with increasing relative abundance of Faidherbia albida trees, but mean F. albida pod production decreased with relative species abundance. We conclude that carrying capacity has not yet been breached within our study area, but monitoring of the riparian vegetation and livestock numbers will be important in the face of climate change and intensification of extreme weather events.