Dairy Herd 1984-1992
Greys Green Golf Course is still often called The Dog Golf Course, as it all started in Dog Field on Greys Green Farm.
After installing the necessary modern facilities, the Hoods brought their dairy herd of 102 milking cows, together with youngstock, from their previous farm in Wiltshire to Greys Green Farm. The Hoods' herd (commercial, not pedigree) started in 1970 with 70 Ayrshires and was transformed over the years to over 200 head of Holstein/Friesian. Some Simmental blood was introduced along the way - hence the white faces in the herd
Here are the cows coming in to milk, with the 4th and 5th holes of what is now the Blue Course behind them. The Friesian cow on the front left, Blind Alma, was born blind on our 
Wiltshire farm. The local farmers said to knock her on the head but we kept her anyway. She adapted just fine - her ears told her where her mates were, where the water was etc. She had several calves and adapted well to the move Greys Green Farm before dying of shock in 1984 when a hot air balloon decided to land nearby. The white faces and the red cow are the Simmental crosses
1984 - Milk Quotas
Milk quotas were introduced across the Common Market in 1984. The usual beaurocratic shambles, whereby the Ministry of Agriculture and the Common Market imposed on farmers a set of regulations that had not been properly thought through
Some dairy farmers went under straight away
Our predicament was more complex, in that we moved our dairy herd on the very day that milk quotas came into force and at the beginning of a planned herd expansion. The regulations had not thought of this little complication and eventually the resultant inadequate award of milk quota to us spelled the end of our dairy enterprise. It took a while. The last of our lovely cows - they all had names, over 200 of them - left Greys Green Farm in 1992
