◂ Event Timeline

Jun 25, 2025REPORTUS

Dairy farmers receive over 50 percent of butter’s retail price, less than 20 percent of ice cream’s

USDA's Economic Research Service reports dairy farmers receive over 50% of butter's retail price but under 20% of ice cream's in 2024. The analysis explains how processing and marketing costs account for the gap between farm and retail prices.

WHY IT MATTERS

The data shows how much retail value is captured downstream of the farm, which is background for milk price pass-through. It does not signal a near-term change in dairy commodity prices.

AFFECTSMilk (Class III)

SOURCE
ers.usda.govJun 25, 2025

Price reaction & history

Milk (Class III)no directional readSO FAR1d 0.0%5d +0.4%20d -6.9%

After 664 past report events, Milk (Class III) moved a median -0.1% over 5 sessions (44% higher; middle half -0.7% to +0.5%), and -0.1% over 20.

Mar 6, 2017Consumers Paid Less for Grocery Store Foods in 2016 Than in 2015 | Economic Research Service-1.3%
Aug 6, 2018Monitoring Trends in Retail Prices and Farm Shares of Food Products | Economic Research Service+1.1%
Aug 9, 2021U.S. milk-fat supply climbed from 2000 to 2019, as did the use of milk fat in cheese and butter production | Economic Research Service+1.1%
Sep 18, 2019Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook: September 2019 | Economic Research Service-0.2%
Feb 14, 2019Livestock, Dairy, and Poultry Outlook: February 2019 | Economic Research Service-0.1%

Moves of each commodity's benchmark from the last close before the event. Historical reads pool past events of the same kind; they describe what happened, not what will. Not investment advice.

Milk (Class III) MILK · GP ▸

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