How are West Midlands farmers adapting to climate change?

Ware has made a “major investment” to mitigate this, spending £75,000 on a misting system to keep the chickens cool, which he said reduced the temperatures in the sheds by five to six degrees celsius.

To protect his orchards, the farmers carry out mulching, to hold moisture in the soil, and manage the land using agroforestry — a practice that integrates trees and shrubs into farming systems.

“Agroforestry is a big way you can adapt, it’s how a lot of farmers will have to move to adapt to climate change,” the 58-year-old said.

“It helps with shelter, you don’t have to use chemicals so much, there’s a whole raft of benefits.”

In order to futureproof the farm, 120kw of solar panels have been installed, and a review of crops that have been grown there historically aims to find out which of those are resilient in the heat.

John Harper, from Harper Farming in Worcester, has had to review the crops grown on the site to ascertain which fare better in heatwaves.

While some of the crops can sustain “a couple of days of heat”, it becomes more difficult during prolonged heatwaves.