Get a first look at the Iowa State Fair butter cow and 'The Music Man' butter sculpture

Focused on "The Music Man" butter sculpture taking life before her, Sarah Pratt of West Des Moines worked with a quiet confidence, adding soft butter to the statue's face before sculpting the structure and details.

The approximately 1,200 pounds of butter that go into creating the butter cow and its companion butter sculptures each year are more than just butter to Pratt. 

The Iowa State Fair butter sculptor has been using the same shortening for 17 years, she explained, because older oleo is more pliable and easy to sculpt. But there's also sentimentality behind the aged butter.

Pratt's predecessor, Norma "Duffy" Lyon, originally used this butter for sculpting, and now Pratt watches as her twin daughters, 18-year-olds Hannah and Grace Pratt, use the same butter to add details to their mother's sculptures.

"I just love the idea of all of the hands that have touched and molded this butter," Pratt said. "My family, but also Norma. The year we got all the new butter was her last year before she retired. So this butter has been touched and molded into lots of things by a lot of people. So there's history and memory in that butter."

From a teenage apprenticeship to a family tradition

Pratt, a native of rural Toledo, Iowa, lived in town, but was always intrigued by farm life, she said. When her friend won the chance to show a dairy cow at the 1990 Iowa State Fair, Pratt, then 13, offered to help prep the animal in exchange for a chance to hang out in the barn.

But showing dairy cows requires certain training: One has to know how to wash, brush and lead a cow correctly. Pratt decidedly did not have those skills.

So while her friend worked on her dairy cow, Pratt was sent to work on the butter cow with her friend's great-aunt, Lyon.

"I literally just sat and softened frozen butter for her and washed buckets, like my 10-year-old does now. That was the beginning. And it was to keep me out of the dairy barn, really," Pratt laughed. 

Lyon invited her back the next year to help with the butter cow, and over time, Pratt became an official apprentice. 

"Norma was a very patient teacher. It was fun to do," Pratt said. "I loved learning about sculpting, so there really wasn't any drawbacks."

And when Lyon started floating the idea of retirement, she pressed Pratt to take her place as head sculptor. Nervous about the responsibility, Pratt came up with every excuse why she couldn't do it, and Lyon met her head-on with all the reasons she would do it.

In 2005, Lyon retired, deciding that Pratt would take up the mantle as head butter sculptor for the Iowa State Fair. She told the Des Moines Register in an interview before she even told Pratt. 

"She announced that she was retiring and I was taking over the next year, but she didn't ask me or tell me," Pratt laughed. "It was in the Register. My mom read it and called me."

Pratt, the head butter cow sculptor since 2006, has worked on the butter cow for a majority of her life, missing only two fairs since she first entered the cooler at 13. Her daughters, who were babies when she became the head butter cow sculptor, also joined their mother as apprentices at age 13.

Hannah and Grace, who will both attend the University of Northern Iowa in the fall, are already becoming the next generation of butter cow sculptors. 

"They're the future, for sure," Pratt said of her daughters. "And they'll make it their own in different ways."

Hearing that, Grace looked up from "The Music Man" sculpture she was detailing and said with a grin: "The cow's going to wear a hat."

Preparing for the 2022 Iowa State Fair

This year's butter cow companion is a tribute to "The Music Man," the Broadway musical written by Mason City native Meredith Willson in 1957.

The musical, based on the fictional town of River City, Iowa, celebrates its 60th year in film with a Broadway reboot that stars Hugh Jackman, who plays traveling salesman Harold Hill. Hill is trying to sell a town of Midwestern nice Iowans musical instruments and uniforms to start a band. 

Pratt and her daughters made memories on a trip to New York City last week, where they saw "The Music Man" performed live on Broadway and had the opportunity to meet Drew Minard, the only Iowan in the cast of the musical. 

"We contacted him ahead of time and told him we were coming, and he agreed to meet us outside and chat with us a little bit about growing up in Iowa and seeing the butter cow as a kid," Pratt said. "So that was just a highlight. My process (for butter sculpting) is just kind of diving deep into a topic, so it just made it all the more personal to see this Iowan fulfilling his dreams in New York and on Broadway in 'The Music Man.'"

Pratt also read several of Willson's books and visited Music Man Square in Mason City in preparation for the butter sculpture. 

"I just love that taking the time to do that work ties your view and emotions into the subject in a way that just makes it all feel exciting, and it's all the more rewarding," Pratt said. 

The first butter cow was exhibited at the Iowa State Fair in 1911. Since then, five people, including Pratt, have dutifully crafted butter objects for display, skipping only a handful of years for World War II.

The fair added a companion sculpture in 1996 that featured Grant Wood’s "American Gothic." Through the years, Harry Potter, Garth Brooks, the 25th anniversary of "Field of Dreams," Superman and gymnast Shawn Johnson have had their own sculptures. 

The 600-pound butter cow is also joined by another companion piece, a relief that celebrates the 100th anniversary of Ye Old Mill, the 1,500-foot canal ride at the Iowa State Fair. 

During the State Fair from Thursday through Aug. 21, fairgoers can see the butter cow and her companion pieces at the John Deere Agriculture Building, open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Great thing about butter sculpting: You get do-overs

Each new sculpture brings a new challenge for Pratt, who enjoys working with butter as a sculpting medium.

"One of the things I love about sculpting in butter … is they do a lot of modeling and packing on. So if you make a mistake, it's OK," Pratt said. "Because if that's not the right nose, you can just scrape it off and make a new one."

She still uses the same tools given to her by Lyon, who died of a stroke in 2011. 

"She was a maker. If she needed a tool, she would design it and have someone put it together," Pratt said. "So there's part of that in me, too. It's just that creative part of being a problem solver when it comes to how to make things happen."

Pratt, a special education teacher, doesn't necessarily "feel famous" for being known as the butter cow sculptor, but it does come with a certain amount of recognition. 

"I love it when little kids get really excited to meet me. That is just something that melts your heart. You just can't get over that," Pratt said. "Being a teacher, I've taught at different schools, and I don't necessarily tell the students (about the butter cow). Like, it's not the first thing I say when I'm introducing myself. But inevitably, they find out one way or another. And when they Google me, they're like, 'No way, there you are with the butter cow!'"

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Grace Altenhofen is a news reporter for the Des Moines Register. She can be reached at galtenhofen@registermedia.com or on Twitter @gracealtenhofen.