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# Who profits when you buy ice cream or butter at the store?
- URL: https://www.investigatemidwest.org/who-profits-when-you-buy-ice-cream-or-butter-at-the-store/
- Published: 2025-07-15T20:22:21.000Z
- Updated: 2025-07-15T20:22:21.000Z
- Description: Processing, packaging and marketing eat into the 'farm share,' leaving farmers with 19% of ice cream’s price but earning 57% from butter.
- Author: Mónica Cordero, Investigate Midwest
- Tags: Data Harvest, butter, cheese, dairy farmer, dairy farming, TP::Explainer, milk, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-06-18 04:56

Nothing beats ice cream on a hot summer afternoon. But while you’re savoring that frozen treat, it’s worth asking: how much of what you paid actually reaches the farmer who produced the milk?

The answer might surprise you: Dairy farmers earn a far smaller share from ice cream than from butter.

That’s because milk undergoes a transformation between the farm and the grocery store, becoming products like ice cream, butter and cheese. Food processors, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and food service providers each play a role through marketing, packaging and processing.

These added costs account for a significant portion of what consumers pay at checkout. The “farm share” reflects the farmer’s cut of that final price, a ratio of what they receive for the raw milk compared to what the product sells for in stores, according to data from the USDA’s Economic Research Service [Price Spreads from Farm to Consumer](https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/price-spreads-from-farm-to-consumer?ref=investigatemidwest.org) data product.

Take ice cream, for example. It’s made by [blending milk and cream with other ingredients](https://www.usdairy.com/news-articles/how-is-ice-cream-made?ref=investigatemidwest.org), such as sugar, egg yolks, and stabilizers, along with additional add-ins like chocolate, vanilla and strawberries.

The complexity of this process adds multiple layers of cost. As a result, in 2024, farmers received just 19% of the retail price of ice cream, according to data from the USDA.

By contrast, butter delivers a much higher return to farmers. Made simply by [whisking cream into a product](https://www.usdairy.com/news-articles/how-to-make-homemade-butter?ref=investigatemidwest.org) that remains more than 80% milk fat, butter requires far less processing.

That difference matters: in 2024, farmers earned 57% of what consumers paid for butter.

In 2023, [the five leading milk-producing states —](https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/animal-products/dairy/background?ref=investigatemidwest.org) California, Wisconsin, Idaho, Texas, and New York — accounted for more than half of the nation’s annual milk supply, underscoring their central role in the country’s dairy industry.