The Legacy of Sni-A-Bar Farms
A crowd at the American Royal. Judging cattle. Photo courtesy of JCHS. PHL 8212.
Across 1755 acres of what are now homes, businesses, roads, and parks once stood a massive assortment of farms collectively known as Sni-A Bar Farms. These not only served as demonstration farms, research centers, and pillars of international agricultural innovation but also served as the heart of Grain Valley’s local economy. With the help of the late William Rockhill Nelson and the trust he left behind, Sni-A-Bar shielded the community from the worst of the Great Depression.
By Kael Knight and Steven V. Potter
Youth with bull. Photo courtesy of JCHS. PHL 8228.
Sni-A-Bar Farms started its life as a passion project of Nelson and carried out his vision well beyond his lifetime. Nelson, the co-founder, owner, and publisher of “The Kansas City Star” bred cattle as a hobby and had grown particularly fond of Shorthorn cattle after acquiring a Shorthorn show winner from the 1904 St. Louis World Fair. Starting in the 1910s, Nelson began purchasing adjacent farmland, eventually amassing 1755 acres (later expanded to 1770 acres) through the middle of modern-day Grain Valley. In 1913, these disparate land parcels were grouped into the collective Sni-A-Bar Farms, featuring some 17 houses, several more barns, and acres upon acres of pasture and crop fields.
The new entity was a demonstration farm, meant to pioneer new agricultural techniques to benefit common farmers. The original project of Sni-A-Bar is outlined in the document “The Grading-Up of Cattle,” a mimeographed U.S. Department of Agriculture report published by Nelson’s Trust after his passing. The report exemplified a breeding program which progressively improved the stock of common cattle.
At Nelson’s direction, the farm staff started buying less expensive “grade cattle” or cattle that were not purebred nor registered with a pedigree. The “grade cows” were then cross-bred several times, selecting for certain features in each generation. The farm displayed very promising results within the first few years of operation. Sni-A-Bar soon moved to publicly demonstrate their findings to the local community, setting up the first "Demonstration Days” in 1922 which drew enormous crowds for the time.
“Ten thousand people in Grain Valley, in the 1920s if you can believe it,” says Marcia Napier, a volunteer archivist for the Grain Valley Historical Society. “My dad used to say every kid in Jackson County came - and one reason was that [Sni-A-Bar farms] would give them a free meal.”
Crowd viewing cattle at the American Royal. Photo courtesy of JCHS. PHL 8235.
At these demonstrations, cattle and cuts of meat from each generation of the “Grading-Up” process were displayed side by side for the public. While researchers and farm workers discussed their methods, show attendees were given sandwiches made with Sni-A-Bar ‘Graded-Up’ beef. Importantly, attendees were taught how they’d be able to achieve similar results with cattle on their own farms.
“It was about the common farmer, helping them get better meat, and better prices, with lesser bulls,” Napier says, summarizing Nelson’s philanthropic goals for the farm. While Nelson’s original idea was proven viable very quickly, the farm’s staff would continue to pursue the general goal of helping common farmers well after Nelson’s passing in 1915.
William Rockhill Nelson, publisher of the Kansas City Star-Times, was the driving force behind Sni-A-Bar Farms. Photo courtesy of Missouri Valley Special Collections.
After Nelson’s death, his many enterprises, including Sni-A-Bar Farms, passed to a trust. Nelson’s daughter and her husband, Laura and Irwin Kirkwood, were beneficiaries of the trust. As outlined in William Rockhill Nelson; the story of a man, a newspaper and a city, Sni-A-Bar Farms “were for 30 years to be made models for the instruction of the people of the surrounding country in stock-raising. After that time they were to become part of the general estate.”
Laura Nelson Kirkwood died in 1926 and the Farms were completely in the hands of the Nelson Trust. The Trust’s board was made up of the heads of three universities, two of which were out of state and at the time not actively pursuing agricultural development. As a result, the foreman they promoted to Farm Manager was given exceptional control over the direction of the farm. The man the board chose was James Napier, a long-time Sni-A-Bar foreman and Marcia Napier’s grandfather. James signed on with the farm in 1922 after receiving a job offer at a cattle show in Montreal. James managed the collected properties and oversaw the development projects conducted at Sni-A-Bar from 1926 until the Trust sold the farms in 1945. A first-generation Scottish immigrant, James saw Sni-A-Bar Farms build itself into a cornerstone of the local economy, a powerhouse of post-dust bowl farming methods, and an international center of agricultural development.
Marcia Napier has committed the past few years of her life to work in the Grain Valley Historical Society Museum. Along with managing the archive, Napier’s work includes the establishment of a permanent Sni-A-Bar Farms display - chronicling, cataloging, and preserving her family’s legacy along with the history of Grain Valley.
For many years, Sni-A-Bar was a serious research center. Agricultural liaisons from as far away as Russia, Germany, and Peru would travel to be part of research projects conducted on the Farms. The USDA also had permanent residency in two of the farm’s houses. Land Grant Universities, most frequently the University of Missouri, Kansas State, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, Michigan, and Purdue sent interns to Sni-A-Bar to learn the novel techniques in practice on The Farms.
Girl washing her steer. Photo courtesy of JCHS. PHL 8238.
In the late 1920s Sni-A-Bar pioneered the novel Creep Feeding technique. Creep Feeding involves installing a low opening to keep out heifers and cows so that calves have access to higher quality feed and grasses. This revolutionary technique helped assure stronger and higher quality young livestock.
In addition to the Shorthorn breed innovations, from 1931 to 1938 the Farms conducted a massive study in pasture management. Sni-A-Bar pioneered cattle management techniques, purposefully funneling the herd and tending to the pasture as they moved through it. A 1,000-acre stretch that couldn’t have supported 200 cattle when left to their own devices could support a herd of 600 while the herdsmen observed these techniques.
Agriculture students also conducted a series of cooperative crop tests from 1928 to 1930, publishing their work with corn and wheat in installments. In 1929, a hybrid corn test produced 90 bushels of corn per acre, as opposed to the 72 bushels produced by the control crop.
Sni-A-Bar agriculturalists were the first to introduce Korean Lespedeza and Atlas Sorgo, crops for grazing cattle, to Missouri. Sorgo is a particularly drought-resistant plant, capable of producing 8 to 10 tons per acre in drought conditions. Both crops are used across the state to this day. These innovations can be seen as the participant’s reaction to the Dust Bowl. Much of the work Sni-A-Bar staff and other demonstration farms like it did in this era provides the foundation for modern agriculture.
A crowd at the American Royal. Judging cattle. Photo courtesy of JCHS. PHL 8212.
The product of all of Sni-A-Bar Farms' research and hard work couldn’t quite be summed up by scientific journals, so the staff hit the road. For decades the farm was a strong contender in show cattle competitions, ranking and often winning regional and national championships. Charles Napier, James’ son and Marcia’s father, was named head herdsman in 1936 and retained the position until the Farms’ purchase in 1945. Before taking on responsibility at Sni-A-Bar Farms, Napier worked for the USDA in Maryland. As head herdsman, Napier had many responsibilities. Among other things, he managed the show cattle, striking out on the show circuit every summer that took him away from the Farms for up to 27 weeks every year. The cattle show circuit started in Ogden, Utah in January each year and ended each year in November at the Chicago International. Once, Charles Napier traveled as far as Australia to show cattle.
As the country entered the Great Depression, Sni-A-Bar Farms and the Nelson Trust that funded it helped shield the people of Grain Valley from the worst of the hardship. The farm employed many local workers and bought the vast majority of the animal feed and other supplies it needed from local Grain Valley businesses. It wasn’t unheard of for the farm to directly feed locals as well. “I've been told that during The Depression … no one went hungry in Grain Valley,” said Marcia Napier, relaying stories her grandmother told her. “If worse came to worse, you could go to the farm and they'd give you meat or potatoes, or eggs.”
Sni-A-Bar Farm buildings. Photo courtesy of JCHS. PHM 4655.
The collective Sni-A-Bar Farms were put up for sale 30 years after Nelson’s death, and bought by a local businessman Ralph Smith in 1945. According to Charles Napier, Sni-A-Bar’s herd went for a larger price than the real estate. In 1947 it was sold again to Ray Batman, who began dividing and selling off the property. Sni-A-Bar persisted in a diminishing state, with many of its buildings falling into severe disrepair. The dissolution of the Farms ultimately provided much needed space for the suburbanization of Grain Valley, exemplified by the 1999 Sni-A-Bar subdivision, and subsequent developments like it. What remains of Sni-A-Bar farms is land and a few buildings owned by the city of Grain Valley on the corner of Sni-A-Bar Boulevard and Main Street along with a silo standing northeast of the intersection of Eagles Parkway and Buckner-Tarsney Road.
While the physical Sni-A-Bar Farms is long gone, its legacy endures. In times of scarcity, Sni-A-Bar gave back to the community, helping protect Grain Valley and its citizens from the worst effects of economic downturn. At its height, Sni-A-Bar Farms played a significant role in the development of modern agricultural practices. The staff there pioneered new techniques in cattle breeding, planting, and pasture management, focused on improving the lives of common Midwestern farmers, all in accordance to Nelson's original vision.
Perhaps most importantly, Sni-A-Bar resides in the fond memories of those like Marcia Napier. Visitors to the Grain Valley Historical Society would do well to visit Grain Valley and Napier at the Museum and hear about her family’s work at Sni-A-Bar Farms, her time showing Sni-A-Bar cattle, hearing about the thousands of people who traveled to Grain Valley during Demonstration Days, and hearing about the work to improve the lives of farmers across the world – all from this small town in eastern Jackson County.
Kael Knight is a freelance journalist and storyteller who studied at Alaska-Fairbanks and University of Oklahoma and is currently living in Belton, MO.
Steven V. Potter, BA - History, MaLS, MPA, formerly of Mid-Continent Public Library is currently living in Grain Valley, MO. Steve is also a former JCHS Director.