Initially known as The Research Institute in Dairying, the Board of Agriculture established this centre for agricultural science and engineering in 1912. The Institute formed part of University College, Reading (later the University of Reading). In 1920 the Institute acquired Shinfield Manor, which became an experimental farm. The following year the Institute changed its name to the National Institute for Research in Dairying, often known by its acronmyn NIRD.

NIRD carried out basic and applied research into milk production and dairy products, including work on nutrition, animal husbandry, chemisty, physiology, biochemisty and bacteriology. It also aimed to improve methods in the dairying industry, partly by experimenting with equipment such as heat pumps. At its height, the Institute had a staff of around four hundred and fifty people. Whilst NIRD formed part of the University of Reading, it was financed largely by the Agricultural and Food Research Council.

NIRD was replaced by the Grassland Research Institute, Hurley, and the Food Research Institute, Reading, in 1985.