Although farming was cool, more heat would have been good to grow more grass on farm last month, Mr Stringer said.
"It is that flaming cold. We were ground wet last spring but we had finer days in between and some heat. This spring, we are not getting any heat. It annoys you. You think next week will be better but it hasn’t been."
They were considering putting out the bulls even later to push out calving on their farm.
He and wife Gay had visited a beef farm in Oklahoma in the United States where calves arrived in summer, he said.
"It seems a good idea to me, after the spring we’ve had."
Mrs Stringer said their calving began in the second week of September, which had been pushed out a week later than usual due to the wet spring last year.
"It wasn’t enough. This October has been no better than September — has it?"
Mr Stringer said their son Joe had floated the idea of delaying calving to October.
Any cattle-mating decisions on farm were up to Joe, as he had semi-retired, Mr Stringer said.
Strong winds had delayed spray, grass and fertiliser application last month.
The Stringers were home for lunch on October 23, when they could see a storm approaching up the valley.
When the wind hit, the noise of the storm passing was added to by the sound of clods of dirt banging against the windows of their home on their more than 120ha "Waikaka" block.
The only animal losses across both properties was a flock of hens, after the strong wind lifted their shelter and tumbled it and everything inside across a paddock.
The wind event was the worst they had experienced in Southland since they began farming in the region in 1994.
Due to the wind event, their neighbours lost power for a week.
At the Waikaka block, they had an off-grid solar system with two lithium batteries, which allowed them to operate their home as normal after the storm.
"It has been brilliant," Mrs Stringer said.
The solar system had been part of their new house since they built it about two years ago.
They installed the solar system because it was cheaper than getting power poles installed across the 2km between the road and their new house.
They also had a windmill installed to generate power for their home.
Another solar system was installed on the covered yards at the bigger block about a decade ago to power farm infrastructure ranging from electric fences to freezers.
As the solar system on the covered yards was connected to the grid, allowing them to sell surplus energy, it remained off during the outage, so it did not hamper any repair work undertaken by the linesmen.
Mr Stringer maintains farming is cool despite its challenges such as adverse spring weather.
"It is what it is. It is an interesting game."
