While some breeders say wool cut and quality may have to be compromised when breeding for a bare breech, others strongly disagree.

Born with a bare breech. good wool coverage on a plain body and a fleece measuring 17.3 microns at 12 months of age, a ram at the Toland stud at Violet Town, Victoria might have uncovered another piece of the genetic mulesing puzzle.

Understandably stud principal Phil Toland is looking to expand the genetics.

"I reckon there are a lot of similar rams around the country, but this guy ticks plenty of boxes as he does not have bold crimping wool, it would have a count of 64 I suppose of best topmakers quality, he is in the top 10 per cent of the drop for clean fleece weight, shows has an estimated breeding value figure of +10 for staple length and is in the top five per cent for growth. He proves that bare breech rams can be highly productive."

The ram is from a bare breech ewe but not sired by a bare breech ram and weighs 66 kilograms at 12 months.

"He’s only young and if he was a ewe or a wether he would cut six kilograms of well nourished wool. The difference with this ram is that he has good wool coverage. Some of the South Australian bare breech bloodlines actually have bare crutches and some of those Merinos bare off after a couple of years, this ram was born like this so I think there are some different genes at work here."

Mr Toland hopes to add to the vibrant debate surrounding a genetic answer to mulesing.

"It’s just another angle to the issue. This ram was hastily mulesed along with all the rams in the mob because it was best practice at the time. Bare breech breeding without the need to mules is the new model or paradigm. On the other hand, where wool cut per head is a priority, bare crutch breeding in isolation needs to be heeded as it will result in less wool growing area on the sheep."

Semen from the ram has been sold to Queensland already and Mr Toland hopes the ram will spark plenty of interest and debate at the sheep and wool show in Bendigo next month.