I like it. The deeper contrast on the barbed wire definitely looks better.
(Note: Although I suspect you could have achieved the same thing (and with less noise) by exposing to the right, and correcting in post. Contrast of a RAW is really all about the default tone curve...fundamentally, digital sensors are nearly linear devices (there might be some slight attenuation due to the electronics). You never really lose anything with ETTR in a digital camera, and you'll always improve your SNR (and thus, reduce noise.) Think of a raw image more as a digital signal than as an image...it is very fluid and flexible in post.)
Glad you liked it, thanks.
I probably didn't make it clear, the original under exposure was not intentional. (were has the little embarrassed face gone when you need it) (I had not reset the camera from the shot before) I choose that shot over others almost identical with more exposure because I liked the "grain", "texture", "noise" or any name it's given. There was minimal noise reduction in PP just LR4 standard settings, if anything the bit of clarity, vibrancy and hint of sharpening all will have increased the noise. I liked the effect as I thought it added something to the image. I only mentioned it to explain why it looked like it did, not to say I couldn't get rid of the noise.
I'm happy with the expose to the right idea, though I seldom use it. Normally I'm thinking of the highlights and what I want to achieve with them and I expose as much as I can with them in mind.
Although I have a very technical background I think of my photograph as a way of producing images not photographs. I often find my most interesting shots, from my perspective, are not the most technically "correct" but ones that give a feel of the real world rather than a studio look.