Pinnacle stud provides exceptional value rams in debut sale
Thirty years after Pinnacle stud principal Nick Lawrence started breeding Suffolk sheep he has taken the plunge and held his first on-property ram sale.
Buyers enjoyed some of the most affordable buying for the SA ram sale season so far with 40 of 43 White Suffolks averaging $922 and eight of 18 Suffolks averaging $887.
And while more than half the rams sold at the $800 base price, Nick was very pleased with his debut sale held at the Bettes family's property at Willalooka where the rams have been running.
"I am glad we had the people here we did to start us off, a lot of new faces and a few older faces," he said.
"They got a good deal this year on the rams, hopefully next year they will have to fight a bit more for them."
In the past Nick has offered rams in conjunction with another stud but he said the purchase of 117 White Suffolk hoggets from Ashley Park stud, Bairnsdale, Vic, in 2024 was the catalyst to going it alone.
"To buy the quality of ewes for the value we did and all of a sudden triple the size of the stud, all of a sudden we outgrew what we were doing so we thought it was time," he said.
"It just happened to be 30 years since we started breeding Suffolks which was when I was in Year 11 at Urrbrae (Agricultural High School)."
The majority of the early White Suffolk lots were sired by a 2020 drop ram from Mertex stud in Vic.
"He is the highest growth ram that I have ever scanned while I have been going around different places, he was 100kg at just six months of age," Nick said.
This included lot 13 which made the $1700 sale high and sold to NK&MB Pfeiffer, Parrakie.
The 111.5kg ram which was only a July 2025 drop had an outstanding eye muscle depth of 55mm.
Lot 45-the $1200 highest priced Suffolk was snapped up by KC Heinicke. It had been part of the stud's Royal Adelaide Show team.
The sale's volume buyer was AJ&PA McBride's Nepowie Station, Woolumbool.with 10 White Suffolk rams from $800 to $1200.
One of Pinnacle's long-time clients, Stirling Wells Partners, Keith, bought five Suffolk rams for a $840 average.
Nutrien auctioneer Michael Lawrence said he would have liked to have seen the average a bit higher with "three lambs buying a ram".
However he said it was good to go well into the sale before passing in any lots.
"This year he (Nick) put a lot of work into the rams and they were the best I have seen from him," he said.
"They had good length of spine without getting too over the top in regards to frame, very good muscled rams and a lot of depth under these rams compared to some of the other rams getting around."
