This chapter provides a comprehensive review of the literature relating to the impacts of grazing animals on the quality of soils, vegetation, and surface waters. It focuses on intensively managed grasslands where there is the greatest potential for these impacts to be observed. The chapter indicates that while well‐managed grazing can be beneficial to the environment, intensively managed grazing can actually lead to the degradation of both the soil and vegetation of grassland environments. The various causes, forms, and consequences of this degradation are discussed in detail, and gaps in the knowledge are identified. The chapter highlights the need for recognition and quantification of the relationships between the on‐site impacts of grazing animals (i.e., changes in soil properties and vegetation cover) and the off‐site impacts of grazing animals (i.e., the impact of these changes on hydrology and water quality in surface waters), as these relationships have, in the past, only been alluded to by authors. However, there exists relatively little research evidence to support and quantify these relationships, thus herein we describe data required to address the lack of understanding of the role of grazing animals on grasslands. Finally, the last section of this chapter considers the land management and remediation options available for the reduction of the impacts of intensive livestock farming.