The use of rangeland by domestic animals in the area occupied by present-day Israel goes back to pre-Biblical times.
The range types include the open park forest; the shrubby maquis range of the Mediterranean zone; the 150-300 mm rainfall belt that constitutes the border between the desert and the sown; and the desert scrub range. The Mediterranean steppes are located in the north-east of the country and extend across the Upper Jordan Valley and on to the Golan plateau.
At the end of the War of Independence in 1948, very little livestock remained, most having been moved to neighboring countries. Gradually, the range came into use again, first for sheep and dairy cattle, and later mainly for the beef cattle capacity of the range.The study of its response to grazing was urgently needed. In 1960, the Karei Deshe experimental range station was established 10 km north of Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee), close to the Jordan River.
The work at Karei Deshe served as a center for studies of grazing and ecology on ranges in eastern Galilee and the Golan plateau. Between 1960 and 1981, the main area of study concerned the effects of grazing rotations and stocking density on the performance of beef cows, and on the productivity and botanical composition of the range. In 1982, work was initiated on the relationship between range utilization and the physiological performance of beef cows, and also on the effects of the timing of the breeding season on the performance of commercial herds grazing rangeland. In 1986, a joint project in collaboration with Texas A & M University (Range Science Department), was begun, on the dynamics of early-season grazing, which appeared to be a key process in range management. This project was completed in 1991. A second collaborative project, on biomass partitioning in grasses subjected to defoliation was started towards the end of 1991 and completed in 1995.
Experimental Site:
The Karei Deshe Experimental Range Station is situated in the lower Galilee region of Israel, near the Jordan River and the Kinneret Lake (Sea of Galilee), lat. 32°55'N, long. 35°35'E, alt. 150 m. The topography is hilly, with slopes generally less than 10%. The soils are brown basaltic protogrumosols with variable depth but seldom deeper than 60 cm and with a rock cover of about 30%. The vegetation is dominated by hemicryptophytes (forbs that have a perennial root system but lose most of the shoot during the dry summer) that include Hordeum bulbosum L., Echinops spp., Psoralea bituminosa L. There are also many annual species, some of which are palatable pasture plants (Avena sterilis L., Bromus spp., Trifoliium spp., Medicago spp., and many others) while others are palatable for only short periods during the early vegetative experiment (e.g. Scolymus maculatus L., Brassica nigra L., Echium plantagineum L.). Rainfall: the rainy season begins in October-November and ends in April. The pattern of vegetative growth is strongly influenced by rainfall distribution and intensity. Mean annual precipitation ( S.D.) is 556+169 mm, fluctuating between extremes of 322 and 761 mm .