Stahlbush Island Farms

Karla Chambers, vice president and owner of Stahlbush Island Farms with husband Bill Chambers, is the chairman of the board of directors for the Portland Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She has been a board member since 1999.

“In the global market, U.S. farmers need to compete in ways they never have, and the only way we can do this is through increased productivity,” says Karla Chambers who, with her husband Bill Chambers, owns Stahlbush Island Farms, a 2,200-acre environmentally friendly farm located in Oregon’s lush Willamette Valley. Price competition from abroad isn’t the only challenge for farms like theirs. They also face what may be the most costly land and labor inputs on the world market, industry standards steeped in agricultural programs and practices handed down from the World War II era, and an uneven playing field when it comes to domestic and international agricultural regulations. Despite these challenges, Stahlbush Island Farms has experienced a 20 to 30 percent annual growth rate over the past thirteen years bringing together value-added production, sustainable farming practices, and innovative technologies to lower costs and boost productivity.

“What we’ve done is combine the change in consumer preferences toward environmentally enhanced products with value-added production to fill a niche that really is growing,” says Bill Chambers. The couple bought their farm in 1985, harvesting two crops on 365 acres they owned and 150 leased acres, with a mechanic, a laborer, and their own sweat equity. Early on they knew that differentiating their products from others and moving away from commodity-dependent production was important for profitability. Studying successful farms in Oregon, Bill Chambers concluded that vertical integration was key. This meant adding a business such as a fertilizer or machinery company to lower input costs, or adding value to the raw commodity, for example, incorporating a fresh packing facility into the operation. Based on the study, the farm grew to include a processing plant in 1990 and began processing its own pumpkin.

Today Stahlbush produces 15 crops, which are turned into value-added products for retail, industrial, food service, and export markets. Twelve flash-frozen vegetables and fruits reach retail markets under the Stahlbush Island Farms “sustainable” label. In industrial markets, Stahlbush products are the primary ingredients for products such as baby food, soup, quiches, and pies. Products are exported to 16 countries, primarily for the industrial market, including the soup, beverage, and vegetable industries in Japan, a country that aggressively tests imports for chemical residues.

Farmer’s Market, a certified-organic line of pumpkin products the farm began marketing in the U.S. and Canada during the past two years, grosses 4.5 times more in revenue than the entire farm did in its first year. “That’s the difference between commodity and value-added agriculture where we grow, process, package, and market consumer-ready products—and why we’re more profitable than we ever were with traditional practices,” says Karla Chambers.

When the couple transitioned their farm to sustainable agriculture in 1992, they believed environmental stewardship and producing safe, nutritious food were as important as the bottom line. Although only a portion of the Stahlbush farming operation is certified organic, the entire farm is third-party certified by the Food Alliance for their sustainable farming practices. Through sustainable practices such as rotating crops annually, strip tilling, planting cover crops, reducing and eliminating pesticide use, testing soil and product residue, water conservation irrigating, and recycling, the farm is able to increase its yields with the added benefit of preserving soil and groundwater quality.

To decrease labor costs on the farm, Bill and Karla Chambers focus on mechanization—using their own innovations and bringing in new equipment that incorporates technology from other industries. The productivity gains speak for themselves. After replacing nine conventional tractors with four global positioning system (GPS) tractors, the farm recouped its technology costs within six months. Cost savings and productivity gains come from less maintenance and increased asset utilization. The four GPS tractors, which do the work of 11 conventional machines, operate 24 hours per day, at faster speeds and in straighter lines compared to human-driven tractors. Drivers are responsible only for turning the tractor when signaled at the end of a row. Because of the greater precision, fewer chemicals and fertilizers are used—benefiting the environment and food quality.

Three Marion blackberry harvesters use 30 workers to harvest what 300 workers could harvest by hand. A strip tillage system that reduces the necessity of tilling an entire field is among Bill Chambers’ own innovations improving productivity. Another innovation, a pumpkin cultivator that mechanizes aspects of the cultivation process, has reduced the traditional 80-person hoeing crew down to five—cutting costs by over 75 percent. With pattern recognition technology coming, the couple hopes to completely automate the pumpkin cultivation process.

Providing stability for farm employees is a crucial part of the success of their operation. Crops are planned with complementary labor inputs so employees move from crop to crop through ten months of the year. The farm’s labor force consists of 60 full-time employees, 100 seasonal workers, and 120 strawberry harvesters. Similar to any business, job skills span all levels—horticulturalists, microbiologists, millwrights, electricians, fabricators, welders, mechanics, shift supervisors, and manual laborers.

When asked about the future, Bill Chambers says, “It’s where the customers steer us.” Karla Chambers sees consumer demand for environmentally enhanced products continuing to grow as evidenced by the demand for their products and the number of stores devoting larger portions of shelf space to sustainable, organic, and locally grown products. The direction of traditional agriculture is what remains unclear. “It will be interesting to look back ten years from now,” says Karla Chambers. But whatever the future holds, the vision for Stahlbush Island Farms is clear.