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 and 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 might have uncovered another piece of the genetic mulesing puzzle.

“I reckon there are a lot of similar rams around the country, but this guy ticks plenty of boxes,” stud principal Phil Toland said.

“He does not have bold crimping wool – it would have a count of 64 of best topmakers quality, he is in the top 10 per cent of the drop for clean fleece weight, has an estimated breeding value figure of +10 for staple length and is in the top 5pc 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.

“He’s only young and if he was a ewe or a wether he would cut 6kg of well nourished wool,” Mr Toland said. “The difference with this ram is that he has good wool coverage.”

While some South Australian bare breech bloodlines actually had bare crutches and some of those Merinos “bared off” after a few years, he believes his ram has different genes.

Mr Toland said the ram was hastily mulesed along with all the rams in the mob because it was best practice at the time.

“But bare breech breeding without the need to mules is the new model or paradigm,” he said.

Semen from the ram has been sold to Queensland already and Mr Toland expected the ram to spark interest and debate at next month’s Australian Sheep and Wool Show at Bendigo.