13 things you didn't know about the butter cow at the Iowa State Fair

For the last 18 years, Sarah Pratt has been the primary sculptor behind the butter cow, that bovine beauty found in the Ag Building at the Iowa State Fair. While other artists have murals or photography or corn paintings at the fair, this is Pratt’s big art project of the summer, and it only lasts for 11 days.

The West Des Moines special education teacher dons a sweatshirt, sometimes a hoodie, and gets to work taking 600 pounds of butter and molding it around a frame of wood, metal, wire and mesh to become a Jersey cow, a staple of the Iowa State Fair since 1911, when J.K. Daniels sculpted the fair’s first butter cow.

Pratt, the fifth butter sculptor to wield the chisels and palette knives that give the butter cow and her companions their shapes, brought her twin daughters Grace and Hannah on board to help with sculpting last year, and the two spent time in the cooler helping their mother add the finishing touches to the art during the first two days of the fair.

The two officially started apprenticing for their mother when they were 13, but spent their childhood in the cooler every July and August, learning the craft. Both, now 20, attend the University of Northern Iowa, with Grace studying studio art and Hannah theater design and production.

Sarah Pratt said she started apprenticing in 1991, when she was 14, for Norma “Duffy” Lyon, who sculpted the butter cow starting in 1960. It’s a tradition handed down and taught through hours in the cooler.

Grace and Hannah sit inside the cooler on the second day of the fair putting the finishing touches on the figures. People knock on the window to ask if it’s cold in there, tell them to move so they can see the figures, or offer pointers on the works in progress. Those final moments give fairgoers a look at the butter sculpting process that started in March when the three brainstormed ideas for companion pieces to present the fair for approval.

This year, the trio opted to honor some of the late-night comedians with Iowa ties with their figures formed in butter. Late-night host Johnny Carson was born in Corning, Iowa, and has his place in the display. Jimmy Fallon, who turns 50 this year, and Steve Higgins, a Des Moines native who serves as the announcer and producer of “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” ride on a Sky Glider seat together. The Sky Glider turned 50 this year.

More: 'Tonight Show' announcer, Des Moines native Steve Higgins visits his butter sculpture

In addition to sending a personal note to the Pratts along with “The Tonight Show” gifts, Higgins visited the State Fair and his butter sculpture last Saturday. Pratt brought him inside the cooler to see his sculpture up close.

“As an Iowan it’s something you didn't even think could be a possibility,” he said from the Ag Building last Saturday. “I've won many Emmys, but this is more thrilling.”

Is there a sculpture of Caitlin Clark at the Iowa State Fair this year?

There was a rumor that the butter sculpture of Indiana Fever and former Iowa Hawkeye Caitlin Clark returned to the fair this year. That sculpture appeared alongside former NFL pro Kurt Warner and former Iowa State football hero Jack Trice in 2023 at the Iowa State Fair.

The Caitlin Clark sculpture did not return in 2024.

“We don’t know where that rumor started,” Grace Pratt said. “Someone posted a picture of the unfinished sculpture next to a finished picture, both from last year, but they said it was two different years. It is not. They’re both from last year.”

The twins say that Clark knew about the sculpture last year, and she and her family were happy with how it turned out.

Iowa State Fair butter cow facts

Here's a look at some of the fun facts behind the butter cow and her companions.

1. The butter cow takes three people 40 hours each to complete.
2. “I am always changing and trying to make her look more modern or different,” Sarah Pratt said. This year, she used a different technique with the eyes, sculpting out hollows and then adding eyeballs with eyelids over the top.
3. It uses enough butter to slather on 19,200 slices of toast.
4. The butter is stored in 55-pound boxes and reused from year to year.
5. The older the butter gets, the easier it is to sculpt. Some of the butter used is at least 10 years old.
6. It smells like blue cheese in the cooler.
7. The companion sculptures started in 1996, starring painter Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” painting.
8. Pratt’s first companion pieces were Norwalk-native Brandon Routh as Superman of “Superman Returns” and “Mr. State Fair Bill Riley in honor of his 60th fair.
9. The butter cow is five-and-a-half feet high and eight feet long.
10. The butter sculpture of Jimmy Fallon includes a corn dog, a nod to the 75th anniversary of deep-fried dish on a stick.
11. It takes about five to eight hours to remove all of the butter from the sculptures. The coolers are turned off to let the butter soften. It’s then removed and boxed up.
12. They like to hide things in the buckets for the next year. “Oh, yeah, this year, they had taken one of the faces off of the athletes from last year, and stuck it in a bucket with a note that said, ‘We've been trying to reach you, but your car's extended warranty expired.’ We love finding those notes the next year,” Hannah said.
13. The Agriculture Building is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. until Sunday.

Susan Stapleton is the entertainment editor and dining reporter at The Des Moines Register. Follow her on Facebook , Twitter , or Instagram , or drop her a line at sstapleton@gannett.com .

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: 13 things you didn't know about the butter cow at the Iowa State Fair