In May 1944, the Centraal Instituut voor Landbouwkundig Onderzoek ("Central Institute for Agricultural Research", CILO), based in Wageningen, leased the dairy farm Bosma Zathe in the Frisian village of Ureterp for agronomic research.
In 1956 this test farm was taken over by the (Frisian provincial) Christelijke Boeren en Tuinders Bond ("Christian Farmers' and Horticulturalists' Association", CBTB), which ran it for the following sixteen years.
During a reorganisation in 1972, Bosma Zathe was transformed into a regional research centre (ROC).
As such it became, from 1974 onwards, a collaboriation between the CBTB, the Friese Maatschappij van Landbouw ("Frisian Society of Agriculture") and interest groups of farmers and horticulturalists from the neighbouring Province of Groningen.
Through a merger in 1995, the test farm became part of a national Stichting Praktijkonderzoek Rundvee, Schapen en Paarden ("Foundation for Practical Research into Husbandry of Cattle, Sheep and Horses").
From that point, the research which took place there was coordinated from Lelystad, in the central Dutch province of Flevoland.

In 2000, the test farm Bosma Zathe was moved from Ureterp to the Boksumerpolder, near the Frisian capital of Leeuwarden, where it took the name of Nij Bosma Zathe (nij means "new" in the West Frisian language).
The building complex in that location was newly built in 1999.
Nij Bosma Zathe was officially opened by the Queen's Commissioner in the Province of Friesland Ed Nijpels on 6 December 2000.
The entire moving operation cost in excess of 17 million Dutch guilders.
Afterwards, Nij Bosma Zatha, together with the other five Dutch regional research centres in the field of dairy farming (Cranendonck, De Vlierd, Zegveld, Aver Heino and Waiboerhoeve), became part of Wageningen University & Research (WUR).
Nij Bosma Zathe's function was that of centre for practical research for the dairy farming area of the northern Netherlands region (nl).
In 2001 the test farm was grouped with the Praktijkonderzoek Veehouderij ("Practical Research Animal Husbandry"), an independently operating part of WUR.
At that time Nij Bosma Zathe was made up of two residential dwellings, a (traditional) barn, a dairy barn with room for 184 cows, a barn for young cattle with facilities for calving, and a shed for agricultural machinery.

Because of the discontinuance of the Landbouwschap, an organisation which had imposed a collective tax on Dutch farmers from which practical research was paid, budget cuts to the test farms became inevitable.
In 2008-2009 all parties involved came to the agreement that the test farms for dairy farming would by brought together in one location.
  The intention was to establish a single national knowledge centre for innovation, scientific research, education and practical learning in the field of dairy farming and the production and processing of dairy products,  named 'Dairy Campus'.
 Leeuwarden was named as the location of the newly centralised test farm, but that plan ran into opposition from the Animal Science Group of Wageningen University, .
who considered that a concentration of the test farms for dairy farming at Waiboerhoeve, near Lelystad, the largest test farm in the Netherlands, was a more central location.

In the end the decision that the Dairy Campus would be located at Nij Bosma Zathe was taken in 2011 on the basis that Friesland is pre-eminently a dairy farming province, with a large number of organisations in the sphere of agriculture.
Behind the scenes the Province of Friesland and the Municipality of Leeuwarden did some hard lobbying to get the Dairy Campus in Leeuwarden, among other things by promising €20 million in subsidies, a third of that for establishing the infrastructure and the rest for the curriculum and scientific research.
Of that €20 million, €2.5 million came from the provincial government, another €2.5 million from the municipal government, and the remaining €15 million from the Frisian part of the Samenwerkingsverband Noord-Nederland ("Northern Netherlands Regional Cooperation", SNN).
In May 1944, the Centraal Instituut voor Landbouwkundig Onderzoek ("Central Institute for Agricultural Research", CILO), based in Wageningen, leased the dairy farm Bosma Zathe in the Frisian village of Ureterp for agronomic research. In 1956 this test farm was taken over by the (Frisian provincial) Christelijke Boeren en Tuinders Bond ("Christian Farmers' and Horticulturalists' Association", CBTB), which ran it for the following sixteen years. During a reorganisation in 1972, Bosma Zathe was transformed into a regional research centre (ROC). As such it became, from 1974 onwards, a collaboriation between the CBTB, the Friese Maatschappij van Landbouw ("Frisian Society of Agriculture") and interest groups of farmers and horticulturalists from the neighbouring Province of Groningen. Through a merger in 1995, the test farm became part of a national Stichting Praktijkonderzoek Rundvee, Schapen en Paarden ("Foundation for Practical Research into Husbandry of Cattle, Sheep and Horses"). From that point, the research which took place there was coordinated from Lelystad, in the central Dutch province of Flevoland.
In 2000, the test farm Bosma Zathe was moved from Ureterp to the Boksumerpolder, near the Frisian capital of Leeuwarden, where it took the name of Nij Bosma Zathe (nij means "new" in the West Frisian language). The building complex in that location was newly built in 1999. Nij Bosma Zathe was officially opened by the Queen's Commissioner in the Province of Friesland Ed Nijpels on 6 December 2000. The entire moving operation cost in excess of 17 million Dutch guilders. Afterwards, Nij Bosma Zatha, together with the other five Dutch regional research centres in the field of dairy farming (Cranendonck, De Vlierd, Zegveld, Aver Heino and Waiboerhoeve), became part of Wageningen University & Research (WUR). Nij Bosma Zathe's function was that of centre for practical research for the dairy farming area of the northern Netherlands region (nl). In 2001 the test farm was grouped with the Praktijkonderzoek Veehouderij ("Practical Research Animal Husbandry"), an independently operating part of WUR. At that time Nij Bosma Zathe was made up of two residential dwellings, a (traditional) barn, a dairy barn with room for 184 cows, a barn for young cattle with facilities for calving, and a shed for agricultural machinery.
Because of the discontinuance of the Landbouwschap, an organisation which had imposed a collective tax on Dutch farmers from which practical research was paid, budget cuts to the test farms became inevitable. In 2008-2009 all parties involved came to the agreement that the test farms for dairy farming would by brought together in one location.   The intention was to establish a single national knowledge centre for innovation, scientific research, education and practical learning in the field of dairy farming and the production and processing of dairy products,  named 'Dairy Campus'.  Leeuwarden was named as the location of the newly centralised test farm, but that plan ran into opposition from the Animal Science Group of Wageningen University, . who considered that a concentration of the test farms for dairy farming at Waiboerhoeve, near Lelystad, the largest test farm in the Netherlands, was a more central location.
In the end the decision that the Dairy Campus would be located at Nij Bosma Zathe was taken in 2011 on the basis that Friesland is pre-eminently a dairy farming province, with a large number of organisations in the sphere of agriculture. Behind the scenes the Province of Friesland and the Municipality of Leeuwarden did some hard lobbying to get the Dairy Campus in Leeuwarden, among other things by promising €20 million in subsidies, a third of that for establishing the infrastructure and the rest for the curriculum and scientific research. Of that €20 million, €2.5 million came from the provincial government, another €2.5 million from the municipal government, and the remaining €15 million from the Frisian part of the Samenwerkingsverband Noord-Nederland ("Northern Netherlands Regional Cooperation", SNN). 
Dairy Campus