More On State Fair Butter Sculptures

USA Today (via nc links):

Other states with butter cows include Illinois, Kansas, New York and Utah, while the Wisconsin and Indiana state fairs feature mammoth cheese carvings.

But Minnesota may come the closest to Iowa in celebration of its dairy sculptures. The state's dairy queen — Princess Kay of the Milky Way — and her court are immortalized in butter busts. Other state sculptures have included Darth Vadar and, in his home state of Illinois, former President Abraham Lincoln.

But it's Iowa where the rich history was born, confirmed Gary Welling, head of the pastry program at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I.

There, sculptor Sarah Pratt works in a cooler where the air lingers in the low 40s, applying 600 pounds of butter over a metal, wood and wire frame to create a slick and fatty cow that's 5-feet tall and about 8-feet long.

The 34-year-old elementary school teacher took over the job in 2006 from the late Norma "Duffy" Lyon, who was Iowa's "Butter Cow Lady" for 46 years. The butter in the cow may have been around longer than Pratt: It can be reused for up to 10 years.

I still would like to have a party where they use the butter for corn on the cob or rolls.