I always raveled in Errol’s funny telling tales as when he young and down and out Down-Under, such as my fav; having to take a job castrating sheep with his teeth, all the while his nose was stuck up their crusty arse’s !!! (LOL!)
I know he was down and out real bad, but they did have shears for that job, I don’t think that the owners would have demanded this from him and/or anyone else for that mater. But, it does make a fun and crazy tale in which the Flynnster himself can be believed by millions, due to knowing his adventure’s and ballsy (pun) way of life in which he lived it…
This one definitely one of my favorite funny tales only Errol can tell it; I laugh along with him, not against…Baaaaaaa….
— Sergio
twinarchers
April 6, 2016 at 10:30 pm
I have thought about that one too and it is hard to figure out that they would not just cut them off. ??
Gentleman Tim
April 6, 2016 at 11:16 pm
This gives being Down Under a whole new meaning, Sergio.
I know of no witnesses to what Errol (possibly erroneously) called “dagging the hogget”, but I do believe this quite unappetizing method of castrating sheep did take place “Down Under”, and still does occasionally, even in the good old US of A – in Montana, for instance (the state, not the movie.)
Here’s Errol’s account:
“I was the newest man and had to begin at the bottom — the bottom of the sheep itself — literally. I was one of four men in a line, an assembly belt for sheep shearing. The first man took the young hogget, as a young lamb was called, and he had to “dag” him; that is, he must get rid of the bluebottle flies and all the accumulated excreta around the tail. This he did by holding the sheep in his left hand, and his right hand went in and “dagged” the sheep. He grabbed a handful of the sheep’s [excrement], tossed it aside, and passed the sheep on to the man next to him.
The next man was me.
All I had to do was stick my face into this gruesome mess and bite off the young sheep’s testicles. Dag a hogget. I had good teeth. I put my nose into this awful-smelling mess, my teeth solidly around the balls of the six-month-old sheep, and took a bite while I held him upside down. My nose was in fur and ordure. I bit and spat out the product into a pile of what they called prairie oysters.
…The sheep never let out a bleat. You bit, you spat out something like a couple of olives, and passed it on. Every day I had my proportion of oysters. The bluebottle flies swarmed all over me.”
Here’s an independent account of how it was done. On a “good day” they could do 200 sheep!
Please forgive the odd spacing:
Subject: Re: Castrating Sheep with Teeth?
From: notagen-ga on 17 Feb 2005 19:26 PST
I had my first job working on a station as a Jakeroo,one of my duties
was at lamb marking time to “bite out” the testicles of the young
lambs.
The proceedure went like this,the two bosses would catch the lambs
in the yard and hold them up on the fence with there arms holding the
back legs up around the lambs head and the lambs rump resting on the
fence.
I would then pull the testicle sack down and push the testicles back
up towards the body of the lamb ,thus in doing so would give a clear
slack piece of the sack to cut off,a very sharp special castarating
knife was used , the knife had a small crook like aparatus on one end
that could be used to hook hold of the testicle and pull it out , but
it was quite usless and too slow.
The age old method of “biting” them out was the quickest.
The fingers were squeezed down each side of the sack and the two
testicles popped out the cut off end,then i would take a strong hold
with my teeth and pull like hell, the string that is attached up
inside the sheep somwhere had to come away as well,one would then spit
the testicle on the ground and the dogs were allways there to gobble
them down, then i would repeat the process and go for the second one
.
The next step was to hold the long tail with the left hand and
quickly run the very sharp knife down the tail until about the second
joint from the butt and with an upward swing with the left hand and a
downward push with the knife the tail would be cut off.
This was probably the worst part as as soon as the tail was cut a
thin but powerfull spray of blood would shoot into ones face if you
were not quick enough to duck.
It only seems like a bad job to the ones that have never done it
,the fly blown maggoty ones were without a doubt not pleasant to have
ones face buried in close to the wool.
On a good day we would do around 200.
This is a true story ask any of the old bushies and they will confirm it.
Sergio
April 7, 2016 at 12:48 am
GT; This gives being Down Under a whole new meaning, Sergio… that’s to funny my man.. LOL…
As far as the actual doings, all I can say is; Yuck!
I cant imagine doing anything like this, but I guess they do as you show proof…What a “nutty” job to say the least…
So thanks for your update on how to do it, just don’t look for me in any of these places no mater how down and out I get, shoveling horse apples would be about the furthest for me….
timerider
April 7, 2016 at 2:54 pm
GROSS! Give me boots, shovel and broom and off to the stalls I go with me wheelbarrow and very happy not dagging the hogget! LOL…
The Zaca
April 8, 2016 at 1:51 am
OK crew on my little sheep ranch here in Nevada, that is the old way the old Basque sheepherders castrated lambs – we did it that way here one year – I didn’t do the biting but there was a fellow here who helped and he did it that way. Messy yes but actually quick and less painful supposedly on the lamb. I have photos somewhere of the process. Me I prefer a sharp pocket knife……. BTW – nothing better than “Rocky Mountain oysters” – calves testicles, seared on a campfire with plenty of garlic butter….!
Sergio
April 8, 2016 at 8:44 pm
Sounds divine, followed with a nice Pinot. yum!
The Zaca
April 12, 2016 at 2:44 am
OK and today chums, I was helping work 1,000 head of sheep and yes – the owner – he was chomping on the lamb nuts to castrate them, and I ‘ll have you all know folks, I began to laugh and told them of this story about Errol Flynn’s “sheepish” experience, shared on this very blog, and had the whole crew chuckling and showing avid interest that the famed star had had this “experience” with sheep!
Sergio
April 12, 2016 at 11:15 am
maybe they will become fans of this blog and give us their chomping thoughts….can hear those oyster crackling over open fire – Hey gives a whole new meaning to the song; The Christmas song – “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire”….
David DeWitt
April 12, 2016 at 4:44 am
Great post, and comments …
Gentleman Tim
April 12, 2016 at 8:02 pm
It’s a Gland Old Day on the Blog Today!
Monkey Balls, Dagging the Hogget, Rocky Mountain Oysters, etc, etc, etc.
It might be wooly logic, but a new visitor to the EFB today could well think we’re going nuts.
Here’s Errol, apparently on his way to the Big Sky Testicle Festival.
[img]http://ckmaccom.startlogic.com/images/rgc/rgc132b.jpg[/img]