NIRD Farm, Berks - March 2014

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Landie_Man

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So here is the second site of mine and Mookies mad few days. Bearing in mind I’ve been too busy to do photo reports of late.

Extensive History, borrowed from Merlin's report:

History of the National Institute for Research in Dairying


The need for farm land at agricultural research institutes is occasionally questioned. At the N.I.R.D. (National Institute for Research in Dairying) it wouldn’t have been impossible to carry out research on the physiology of lactation and ruminant nutrition with a few cows and relatively little land, but for a substantial system of applied research on milk production technology, large numbers of cattle at the calf, rearing and lactation stages are much needed.

The 1920 move from Reading to Shinfield provided the Institute with Church Farm. This was set in 332 acres of land and included some traditional buildings which, with some fairly cheap additions; allowed the development of a Shorthorn herd of up to 60 cows.

Expansion of the farming activities was soon needed. This became evident during the 1930's.

In 1945 land was pretty inexpensive and was coming on the market locally.
Arborfield Hall Farm was purchased in 1947 (299 acres). Although this subsequently became the home of the Bernard Weitz Centre with a new herd of 400 lactating cows.

The site eventually closed in mid 1980s, and the grounds were maintained initially, which stopped by about the early 1990s.

As the history of this site is quite big, here is a link to the source of the article below.
http://www.arborfieldhistory.org.uk/properties_NIRD.htm

The roofs of the buildings were removed in the 2000’s to prevent squatters.

A pretty mundane looking explore which actually turned out very photogenic due to the sun shine. Actually quite an enjoyable, relaxed hour or two.

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More At:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/landie_man/sets/72157642360601123/
 
Lovely photos thank you..loving the old nissan hut there..seems to be a lot on farms.wonder if it's an original war one.
 

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