Strategy Area Description

Considerable parts of the strategy area have long been dedicated to agriculture, and such activities probably account for over 40% of the area's total land area, cereals and livestock being the main outputs.

Agriculture is largely concentrated in a band running east to west, from Whitburn towards Washington. From there, west across the A1, the agricultural swathe widens and wraps westward around and between Gateshead's western settlements, before it turns northwards to the area's northern and western limit. From this 'horizontal' band, a 'tongue' projects southwards from Washington across the River Wear, towards the Herringtons in the City of Sunderland, and from there, south again, to the east of Hetton, and eastwards from there to Burdon and the coast. Smaller pockets of agricultural activity, such as the rearing of horses, can be found scattered across the area.

The area's agriculture practices are largely determined by the quality of the land upon which they are conducted. There is no land in the strategy area that is graded higher than Agricultural Land Classification Grade 3 (that is, 'good to moderate'), with some small pockets of Grade 4 land (that is, 'poor') in west Gateshead.

Arable tends to be concentrated along the river valleys and on the magnesian limestone. Pastoral land of varying quality tends to be located on poorer soils at slightly higher elevations, but also occurs in the valley bottoms, especially in less well drained areas.

Across the strategy area cereals are grown (mainly wheat and barley, occasionally oats and linseed) with rotated oil seed rape. The margins of cereal fields, in combination with adjacent hedges, and the harvest aftermath of winter stubble (if this is retained) are important for farmland birds (for example grey partridge and yellowhammer) and mammals (for example brown hare).

Where soils can be made more productive with high levels of nutrient inputs, there has been a tendency towards a greater intensification of agriculture over the last 50 years. This has resulted in a pattern of larger fields with fewer less well maintained hedgerows, and where these persist, they tend to do so in a poorly maintained state.

Grazing stock is mixed but, in the main, comprises cattle, some dairy but mainly beef or mixed, with smaller numbers of sheep, the latter predominate on the higher ground of Gateshead and occasionally towards the coast. Across the area, there are many smaller pastures and paddocks, and some larger grasslands, used for grazing horses. Such 'horsiculture' is a prominent local land use.

The variation in agricultural practices across the strategy area means that many of the typical, but declining, species associated with arable and pastoral landscapes persist, at least in small numbers. These include linnet, yellowhammer, and in some areas, grey partridge and brown hare. The adoption of agri-environmental schemes and similar initiatives (for example agricultural set-aside) has been important in some parts in slowing the decline, or aiding the recovery of some farmland bird species (for example tree sparrow) over the period 2000-2020. The strategy area has a higher than the national average uptake of such schemes.

The coastal towns were once important fishing ports. South Shields' status as such had declined long before the collapse of North Sea fish stocks led to the wider industry's collapse.  Sunderland retains a small fishing presence, though its 'fishing fleet' shrank by more than half in the early 21^st century.