Whole Milk x 5 = The Importance of Trade

Jul 28, 2026

Fact: Getting whole milk back in school meals this fall is a big deal.

Thanks to the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act and demand from parents across the country, the most popular variety of milk in the United States is back on lunch trays, benefiting the next generation of milk drinkers.

The return of whole and 2% varieties also will absorb a lot of U.S. butterfat, a boon for dairy producers who have struggled with a supply imbalance. A reasonable estimate of how much whole milk will be consumed by American schoolkids shows additional demand that would be equivalent to nearly 24 million pounds of milkfat — for perspective, that’s enough to make that’s almost 120 million sticks of butter — in additional market need. That boosts dairy demand and improves prices for farmers.

But amid the excitement of bringing whole and 2% milk to schools in the United States, another slower moving, but in some ways even bigger, story is worth a comparison, in part because it’s become so taken for granted that it doesn’t grab attention the same way as whole milk on a lunch plate: Just how much rising exports increasingly support dairy prosperity.

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Video: What Does 20 MILLION Hogs a Year Look Like?

?? The Multi-Plant System Processing 20 Million Hogs Annually in the Midwest JBS USA operates multiple large-scale pork processing facilities across the Midwest, including major plants in Iowa, Minnesota, and Indiana. Combined, these facilities have the capacity to process approximately 20 million hogs annually.

Each plant operates high-speed automated slaughter systems capable of processing up to 20,000 head per day, followed by fabrication lines that break carcasses into primals, sub-primals, and case-ready retail products.

Hog procurement is coordinated through electronic marketing platforms that connect regional contract finishing operations and independent producers to plant demand schedules. This digital procurement system allows for steady supply flow and scheduling efficiency across multiple facilities.

Processing plants incorporate comprehensive food safety systems, including pathogen intervention technologies, rapid chilling processes, and integrated cold-chain management. USDA inspection is embedded throughout the harvest and fabrication stages to ensure regulatory compliance and product integrity. Finished pork products — from bulk primals to retail-ready packaged cuts — are distributed through coordinated logistics networks serving domestic and export markets.