Butter Cow

(Music)

[Sarah Pratt] There's no perfect dairy cow. You're gonna have the one that has the amazing udder, but maybe its fat sags a little bit. Or you have the one that has really strong legs but its udder is a little bit smaller. Even if it's not perfect, it's probably more realistic, in fact, than otherwise. This year, the cow is a Jersey. I have been studying Holsteins quite a bit as well, so sometimes I'll have a farmer walk by and they'll say, like, "I don't know, her udder looks a little bit more Holstein." I think most fairgoers that come by maybe aren't even thinking that it's a particular breed. But I have to admit, Jersey's my favorite breed of all. They have the most gorgeous eyes. They're a bit smaller, typically, than other breeds. They have the highest butter fat content in their milk. So I think it is the perfect cow to represent in the butter sculpture. 

Maybe it's because I love history, and maybe it's because I'm a teacher, but my list, I like it to have some sort of tie in to Iowa. But the fair has given me free reign to brainstorm outside of that, too. So it's delightful because really, the fair is more about celebrating who we are as a culture, too, not just limiting just to what we're known for, the history of Iowa. So that is a fun thing to kind of think outside of that. My sister, in fact, Megan, mentioned to me ten years ago, hey, "Jimmy Fallon and Steve Higgins are taking over the Tonight Show, and Steve's from Iowa. He needs to be in butter." 

The theme for this year's fair is Fair Fever. One of the little taglines was something like, "Catch the fever. The only cure is thrill rides, favorite fair foods, and entertainment." And so we were like, "How can we tie into that?" Well, the Sky Glider is celebrating 50 years, and it's one of our family favorites. Okay, that's great, but who's gonna ride in the Sky Glider? It's a year of 50s for our family. My parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. My husband's turning 50. So we thought, "Maybe it could be some family." My dad reminded me that the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Steve Higgins, was celebrating 10 years. It was like, "Aha!" This is the perfect thing. They love fun. They are all about whimsy. They are the perfect duo to be in the Sky Glider. And then I found out Jimmy Fallon is turning 50 also this year. So I was like, "Ah, this is so perfect." And of course, Johnny Carson was born in Iowa, and so he's going to be featured in a relief sculpture as well. It's going to be a fun, whimsical, tied into the fair theme, tied into Iowa, tied into whimsy. And we're just really excited about it.