Virginia Ishler Retiring After a Stellar 36-year Dairy Career at Penn State

Ginny’s work has made a lasting impact on the Pennsylvania dairy industry.

Virginia Ishler, known to many as “Ginny” began her Penn State career as an Extension Specialist. Prior to starting at Penn State, she worked as a private nutritionist and operated the Penn State NIR forage testing van. If you were testing forages in the 1980s for your dairy, you may remember Ginny and the van in your area! For those who have worked with Virginia in her Extension role at Penn State, you likely found her to be thoughtful, thorough, and focused on helping dairy producers. Since her early beginnings with the NIR forage testing van, Ginny has had a keen interest in practical dairy nutrition. Her down-to-earth approach to problem-solving with a strong science focus helped many dairy producers to improve feed formulation and management, revise cropping strategies, lessen negative environmental impacts, and yield more profit in their operations. She has been an outstanding Extension professional, bringing science-based information to bear on common and sometimes uncommon issues. Her various awards and recognitions throughout her stellar career are a testament to the positive impact of her work.

Ginny has been a team player throughout her career, working easily with faculty and educators both within and across departments and disciplines.  She was part of developing and delivering the “dairy nutrition road show,” before it grew into the Penn State Dairy Nutrition Workshop – a yearly conference that attracts participants nationally and internationally. She has been part of a large agroecosystems group for the past decade, working with a virtual dairy farm model. Virginia has also been a key member of the Extension Dairy Team, Water for Ag Team, and numerous research projects. She has mentored younger staff members over the years on projects and helped with their programs. Most recently Virginia and two newer educators won the Director’s Team Award for Impact in Programming for their work in the “Feed Assessment Program,” an on-farm feeding management assessment that is saving dairy producers money and helping them to improve milk production. This recent accolade completes a long list of recognition including the Vice President’s Pathfinder Award for Innovation and the Pennsylvania Dairyman’s Association Service Award. Dr. Adele Turzillo, Department Head of Animal Science at Penn State remarked, “Virginia has been a tremendous asset to the department. Her expertise in nutrition and nutrient management along with her outstanding work with dairy producers and nutritionists over the years has been a shining example of productive partnerships between Penn State and the dairy industry.”

If you get information from the Penn State Extension website, read articles in Lancaster Farming, or have used the various mobile apps like Penn State’s Dairy Cents, then you have benefited from Ginny’s expertise and outreach. Working collaboratively with colleagues, Virginia made producers more aware of those vital links from crops to cows to profits and led the development of many fact sheets, articles, publications, spreadsheets, and mobile apps. She has written monthly articles, been a key contributor to the department’s Dairy Digest, and has authored or co-authored hundreds of publications during her career. “It has been a great pleasure to work with Ginny to develop the Income Over Feed Cost concept as a tool to monitor the profitability of the dairy. Initial efforts developed into how to integrate IOFC with dairy cash flow to get a practical, realistic measure that can be calculated each month to monitor financial progress. Many unforeseen opportunities to address this topic with the dairy industry happened because of Ginny’s leadership,” notes Tim Beck, Penn State Extension Educator. Working with colleagues to secure extramural grants, Virginia and her team worked one on one and in small groups to help producers understand how high feed expenses impacted cash flow and profitability. Due to the popularity of some programs, additional workshops were often added to meet the demands of producers in various areas of the state.

Virginia’s role at Penn State changed over the years to meet the demands of a growing department and changing dairy industry. When the Penn State dairy needed a manager, Virginia stepped into that role while maintaining a strong Extension program for dairy producers. Virginia’s background in nutrition served the dairy well during her time as manager, and she grew her operations skills with experience in workforce management and overall farm management. Once this role was completed, Ginny again stepped up to fill a need in the department’s teaching schedule. With colleagues’ retirement, the dairy courses related to our Dairy Challenge program were short-staffed. Her expertise in nutrition, feeding management, nutrient management, and finance was invaluable for many students over the years. She co-coached Penn State’s national dairy challenge teams with Dr. Lisa Holden and Mr. Rob Goodling, encouraging students to apply their classroom knowledge to the real world. Our students were always impressed with Ginny’s breadth of knowledge and practical suggestions. She helped them to learn how to “connect the dots” when looking at data and making recommendations. “Ginny’s distinctive ability to assess herd performance and realize effective management solutions left students with more than knowledge but life skills to serve them in their burgeoning careers. Teaching and collaborating with Ginny often resulted in becoming a student as well to garner all the precious nuggets of wisdom she imparted”, says Rob Goodling, Business Consultant with Horizon Farm Credit.

Penn State’s Department of Animal Science and the Extension Dairy Team has greatly appreciated Ginny’s role as an Extension Associate. She has made a tremendous contribution to the dairy industry, to dairy students, and to her colleagues. Her work ethic, knowledge, and ability to work across disciplines as part of a team have made a lasting impact. She leaves behind more than three decades of progress for dairy in her research, teaching, and outreach accomplishments. Quite a legacy! Virginia Ishler, may you have “fair winds and following seas” as you enjoy your retirement.