Little Butter Cows: A Fun Hunt at the Iowa State Fair

[Woman 1] We hide 10 cows a day, every single day of the fair, so 110 cows total. There's no, like, rhyme or reason to, like, how we're hiding the cows or where we're hiding the cows. It's just by chance where we're at.

Over here looks good. Could hide under the Christmas tree, maybe.

I don't want people to know We don't want anybody to know who we are so they don't get a little leg up on the competition. So we'd like to keep ourselves anonymous. It's not about me or anybody else that helps with the cows. It's about the cows themselves and the hunt.

I already know what I'm going to caption it. I can put, oh, Christmas tree.

This started in, I believe, 2019. We used to do the “Where at the Fair” that the Des Moines Register did. But then they took it away, and we just really liked the hunt of finding things around the fair and figured other people liked doing it too. We post on Instagram and Facebook every time we hide a cow.

We do little clues with the cows too, like in the caption, but people are way too good at it, and I don't even think we need clues anymore. They immediately find them within max 5 minutes. It's really a very competitive competition. It's insane how fast people are finding these cows.

This window.

[Man] Running low on cows today.

A window into agriculture or something like that.

[Woman 1] So we've done a couple different designs. We've done the traditional little cows a couple times. We did 3D-printed keychains one year, and then we've done hand-sewn little magnets, and now we're back to the traditional little butter cows this year.

Under this light, out of the rain. Enough out of the rain.

A good hiding spot is just a place where people are, like, overlooking. Just a place where people aren't, like, trying to find a cow. Look in the places where you least expect it. Look under things, behind things. The goal of it is just to make people happy.

[Woman 2] Love it!