Sonview Ranch is a family ranch located in Northern California (about 2 hours north of San Francisco) where 3 generations of our family moved together in 2005. The focus of Jim & Teri Crowhurst’s ranch life these days is our herd of registered Nigerian Dwarf dairy goats, which started in 2010, when Teri got back into dairy goats because our daughter, Jessica bought her a quality Nigerian Dwarf doe kid as a thank you present. Teri has been working hard to breed increasingly correct, beautiful does that excel in the show ring all the way up to the National level and also score well across the Linear Appraisal score card. With the encouraging progress in improving udder and structural correctness, she added a concentration on genetically increasing milk production a couple years ago, with visible results in 2023!
To contact Teri Crowhurst Email – [email protected]
Sonview Ranch Highlights
2024 California State Fair
State Fair was the most Amazing show our herd has ever had.
In the junior division, Sonview Ranch Shakira was Res Champion.
In the senior (milker) division, Sonview Ranch Delightful Dale was awarded Champion and Best Udder. Sonview Ranch Neevia was Res Champion with Reserve Udder.
We had 1st place Dairy Herd but one of the most meaningful wins was winning 1st place in Best 3 Females, because that is a breeders’ class! The Best 3 Females class is a snap shot of a breeder’s progress and production, so it means a lot to me to be at the top of that class. Winning that class was so encouraging as I continue to work toward breeding a more correct dairy goat in both form and function.
I did not realize it until my husband told me long after the show was over, but our Sonview Ranch milkers won EVERY group class. It may never happen again but it sure was special.
Produce of Dam we had 1st & 3rd
Get of Sire – 1st for Alethia DOH Cosmic Wonder and 2nd place for our homebred Sonview Ranch Lando
Daughter & Dam – 1st & 3rd
Dairy Herd 1st place
And the grand finale for breeders – Best 3 Females – 1st place
Sonview Ranch was named 1 of 2 groups in contention for Supreme Best 3 Females, which was a high honor considering we were named in consideration against Rowe’s Toggenburgs, who rightly won.
We were awarded Premiere Sire for Alethia DOH Cosmic Wonder, who has done so much to move our herd forward.
We were honored to be named Premiere Exhibitor and Premiere Breeder for Nigerian Dwarf.
And to top it off, Sonview Ranch Delightful Dale was named the breed Total Performer (the first doe I have ever entered in that competition.)
I will cherish these results as a once in a lifetime achievement.
Our last show of 2024
We ended our 2024 show season with the Mendocino County Fair (mid Sept.) It was a wonderful way to wrap up our show season with the honor of our Sonview Ranch does winning EVERY group class for milking Nigerian Dwarfs. My girls pulled off that feat at the 2024 CA State Fair but I cherished that as a once in a lifetime achievement, so it was extra amazing that they did it again. Very, very unexpected that they could do it again, but truly encouraging as I continue to work hard toward breeding better, conformationally correct, productive Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats.
Sonview Ranch Delightful Dale was Res Champion and Res Best Udder.
HUGE thanks to my amazing husband, Jim Crowhurst, for the unbelievable role he played in making it possible to get to and show at Boonville this year when life took such a drastic turn.
Yearling milkers: Sonview Ranch Renata 3rd, Sonview Ranch KMD Relic 7th, Sonview Ranch KMD Rainey 8th, Sonview Ranch KMD Resolute 9th
2 yr milkers: Sonview Ranch Praise 5th, Sonview Ranch Paragon 6th, Sonview Ranch Prize 9th
3 yr – Sonview Ranch Singular Delight 1st, Sonview Ranch Nazira 2nd, Sonview Ranch Neevia 4th
4 yr – Sonview Ranch Martina 3rd
5 & 6 yr – Sonview Ranch Delightful Dale 1st, Sonview Ranch Lamia 2nd, Sonview Ranch Lainey 4th
Group classes:
Get of Sire – 1st place for Alethia DOH Cosmic Wonder, 3rd for Rosasharn CB Katmandoo with 3 yearling milkers
Dam & daughter – 1st and 3rd
Produce of Dam – 1st and 2nd
BEST 3 FEMALES – 1st
Dairy Herd – 1st (that was an extremely sweet surprise)
2024 Sonoma County Fair
The competition was top notch as usual. The highlight for me was winning the Best 3 Females class, since the does must have been bred and owned by the exhibitor, making it is a breeder’s class.
It was also encouraging to place 2nd in the Dairy Herd class with 4 Sonview Ranch does.
My yearling milkers ended up with Sonview Ranch KMD Rainey 2nd, Sonview Ranch KMD Relic 5th, Sonview Ranch Renata 6th, Sonview Ranch Rejoice 7th, and Sonview Ranch Regal 9th.
2 year olds: Sonview Ranch Praise 4th, Sonview Ranch Paragon 6th, Sonview Ranch Prize 7th.
3 year olds: Sonview Ranch Singular Delight 1st, Sonview Ranch Neevia 2nd, Sonview Ranch Nazira 4th(milking through this year) Sonview Ranch Nessa 6th, Sonview Ranch Sheer Bliss 8th.
4 year old: Sonview Ranch Martina 2nd
5 & 6 year olds: Sonview Ranch Delightful Dale 4th, Sonview Ranch Lamia 5th, Sonview Ranch Lainey 6th.
7 + years: Poppy Patch HB Tiffany 1st (The only doe in my herd that I did not breed and raise)
After the show, it was wonderful to be awarded Premier Breeder for Nigerian Dwarf.
2024 Motherlode DGA Show
Most of my herd freshened later this year, so it was not until this show in June, that I got to show a couple does I am excited about. What an honor to have my Sonview Ranch Lainey chosen as Champion in ring 1. Congratulations to Ilene Leader on winning Res CH with IlenesRascals Hopes Treasure.
What happened in ring 2 blew my mind. A doe I am quite excited about, Sonview Ranch Neevia, is now a 3 year old, 2nd freshener, who was 38 days fresh at the show. I was pleased with her 4th place finish in ring 1, out of 13 competitive does, so it was quite exciting when she won the class in ring 2.
The line up for Champion was full of beautiful does, so I just about fell over when Sonview Ranch Neevia was named Champion and Sonview Ranch Lainey was chosen for Reserve Champion. 🙂 (We had to rush off to milk out for the Best In Show line up so sadly we did not get any pictures but here is a glimpse of the Champion line up in ring 2.) Neevia is the gold doe in the middle and Lainey is the chocolate doe at the head of the line up.
2024 REDGA Memorial Doe Show
The 55th Annual REDGA Memorial Doe show on Memorial Day week-end was enjoyable and well run as always. It was encouraging that every one of our does placed in the top 10 in the super competitive classes both days. The highlight was when Sonview Ranch Lamia was awarded Champion on Sunday. She should now be a finished Champion (pending ADGA processing wins) so I scratched her from the next ring.
It was very exciting to have her win Best Udder at her first show this year and the next week-end finish to be a permanent Champion.
2023 ADGA National Show
Ever since we went to our first National Show in 2019, we were planning to go back in 2023, when it once again came to the West Coast. We are grateful that things did come together and we were able to compete at the 2023 ADGA National Show in Redmond, Oregon in July 2023.
It was stunningly wonderful to see our does do so well at the National level.
The very first class we walked into resulted in the unbelievable feat of our little homebred junior doe kids going 1 – 2 to win the class! Sonview Ranch Regal won the class, with her twin sister, Sonview Ranch Ritzy, (at her first show ever,) placing 2nd right behind her. (sire: Sonview Ranch Lando & dam: GCH Sonview Ranch Delightful Dale (titles pending ADGA updates)
Sonview Ranch KMD Rainey also made the cut in the large class placing 11th out of 56, giving us 3 in the top 20.
Going into the Nationals, our hope was that GCH Sonview Ranch Delightful Dale would be competitive. The quality was extreme as the 5 & 6 year old does entered the ring. As hoped, she made the cut, but it got more exciting when the judges narrowed it down to their top 8 and Delightful Dale was in that group! Then she was still included when they got down to their top 5. They chose 2022 National Champion CH Agape’s Prize French Quarter to win the class, with the beautiful SGCH Springwater BL Janie’s GotAGun 2nd and our Delightful Dale was 3rd, with 17 outstanding does filling out the rest of the top 20 in the class.
Keeping it all in the family, Sonview Ranch Nazira, another daughter of Delightful Dale and a full sister to Sonview Ranch Regal & Ritzy, made the cut in the largest class at the National Show and went on to place 11th out of the 85 two year old milkers.
With 64 in the intermediate kid class, we were very excited to have 2 of ours make the cut of the top 20 and place well. Sonview Ranch Rejoice was 12th place and Sonview Ranch KMD Resolute was 14th.
Since we did not have any senior kids or yearlings, our next class was Best Three Junior Does.
What a thrill to have the judges point to us for 2nd place in the Best 3 Junior Does with our 3 young does.
Then we were 3rd place in Junior Get of Sire for Rosasharn CB Katmandoo, with Sonview Ranch Rejoice, Sonview Ranch KMD Resolute and Sonview Ranch KMD Rainey!
Our 3 year old, Sonview Ranch Martina, made the cut out of 58 and placed 17th.
In the aged doe class, (7 years and over) my dear Poppy Patch HB Tiffany (the only doe in my herd that I did not breed and raise) was a solid 12th place as a 9 year old.
Sonview Ranch was 7th place in Dairy herd.
GCH Sonview Ranch Delightful Dale, Sonview Ranch Nazira and Sonview Ranch Martina placed 6th in the spectacular Best 3 Senior Does class.
Alethia DOH Cosmic Wonder’s daughters did him proud to place 6th in the Senior Get of Sire class. (Sonview Ranch Delightful Dale, Sonview Ranch Lamia, Sonview Ranch Praise (yearling)
And in our final class of the 2023 ADGA National Show, GCH Sonview Ranch Delightful Dale and Sonview Ranch Nazira were 10th place in the Senior Dam & Daughter class! What a wonderful way to end!
2023 Linear Appraisal – August 16
Sonview Ranch was one of the lucky ones to get to have Linear Appraisal done this summer, but I was not sure what to expect with the new scoring system.
I was totally blown away when 5 of our 6 mature does scored 90 or 91, with the 6th doe scoring 88! And then to see 2 of our 3 three year olds score 90, with the 3rd scoring 89, well, it was beyond anything I even hoped for.
As always, I learned a lot and I so appreciate this performance program as a tool as I continue to work to improve my herd and contribute to improving our breed. Here are our scores:
GCH Sonview Ranch Delightful Dale VEEE 91 – 5 years old
Sonview Ranch Lainey VEEE 91 – 4 years old
Sonview Ranch Firebird VEEE 90 – 5 years old
Sonview Ranch Firefly VVEE 90 – 5 years old
Sonview Ranch Lamia VEEE 90 – 4 years old
Sonview Ranch Tribute VVEV 88 – 4 years old
Sonview Ranch Mitzy VEEE 90 – 3 years old
Sonview Ranch Mayla VVEE 90 – 3 years old
Sonview Ranch Martina VEVE 89 – 3 years old
Sonview Ranch Nazira VVVE 89 – 2 years old
Sonview Ranch Singular Delight GVVV 87 – first freshening 2 yr old
Sonview Ranch Extra Blessing GVEG 84 – 2 years old
Sonview Ranch Sheer Bliss VVVG 86 – 1st freshening 2 year old
Sonview Ranch Neevia GGVG 84 – 1st freshening 2 year old
Sonview Ranch Nessa AGAA 78 – health struggles (now resolved)
Sonview Ranch Niva GGVA 82 – 1st freshening 2 year old
Sonview Ranch Praise GGGG 83 – yearling
Sonview Ranch Prize GAGA 81 – yearling
Sonview Ranch Posy AGGA 80 – yearling
Sonview Ranch Paragon GAAA 78 – yearling
Bucks
Rosasharn CB Katmandoo VGE 88 – 18 days before his 8th birthday
Rosasharn HRS Clasic Caballero VVV 86 – 2 years old
2019 ADGA National Show
In 2017, Teri set her sights on being able to show at the National level in 2019, when the ADGA National Show was scheduled to come to the West coast. She decided what she wanted to work on improving in her herd, bought 2 new bucks and carefully planned breedings. The dream became a reality when we were able to go to the ADGA National show in Redmond, Oregon, as planned in 2019. We took 6 kids and 3 milkers, all homebred Sonview Ranch does. Our goal and our hope was that some of our does would make the cut in the huge and highly competitive classes there. (The classes are so large that the judges “cut” out the top 20 animals in the class, excuse the rest of the entries from the ring, then place the top 20 who made the cut.)
What a thrill it was in our first class to have all 3 of our kids make the cut out of 46 nice intermediate doe kids in the ring! They ended up 10th, 12th, and 15th in the class. Sonview Ranch Tribute was 10th, with her twin sister, Sonview Ranch Treasure in 12th and Sonview Ranch Lena was 15th. Having 3 of the top 20 kids our first time in the National Show ring was beyond our dreams.
In the next class, 1 of our 3 entries made the cut in the large senior kid class and then she went top 10! Sonview Ranch Layla was 9th place senior kid!
In the Junior Get of Sire, we made the top 10 again, with our doe kids placing 6th for their sire, Alethia SHH Gunsmoke N Lace.
Our yearling milker did not handle the Nationals experience well, failed to bag up and did not make the cut. It struck me as ironic because the reason I had decided to take her was because she was such a serious milker with such a capacious udder for a yearling that I felt confident she would udder up for the show…
Sonview Ranch Emmy made the cut in the 5 & 6 year old class as one of the last ones chosen for the top 20. It was exciting as the judges kept moving her up in the placings as they sorted those top 20 does. They ended up moving her all the way up to 10th place in a beautiful class.
To wrap things up, our herd queen, Sonview Ranch Fancy C.C., was pulled out to make the cut right away in the aged doe class. It seemed too good to be true when she was placed first as they sorted the class. Amazingly, she WON the aged doe class and was awarded best udder in class also!
That meant that at our first National Show, we were in the line up from which the National Champion was chosen, as well as in the line up for Best Udder of Breed. What an honor!
