Dagging

Dags - "Poos stuck to the wool around the bum", then more poo sticks to what is already there and the dags grow.

So they have to be chopped off!  Mainly this is to prevent flies laying eggs in the faeces, but also when the sheep are going to be shorn dags can stain the good fleece wool of other sheep around them.  And when they are going to the meatworks they have to be clean so there is no meat contamination as the pelt is removed.

An electric handpiece makes it so much easier than the old hand blades (big scissors really)

And the handpiece helps keep the Boss a little happier.  When he has to do it with the blades he gets grumpier. (I don't because I just don't do it - never have, never will)

Picking up what has been chopped off

All finished - if only it was the last in the mob.

As sheep have been bred over the centuries for more wool, it means the poo sticks easier.  Some breeds of sheep (Wiltshire) are barer around the tail so they don't get as many dags, and even some Perendales are better than others. Feed and parasites can affect the number of dags you get as loose sticky poo sticks whereas nice little hard pellets don't.

"rattle your dags" - hurry up, get a move on.  Dried dags really do rattle when a sheep runs
"a bit of a dag" - something funny, a hard case person, joker or comedian