Sheep with an undocked tail

Here's the Wiki:

Many breeds of sheep have their tails docked to reduce the buildup of faeces which can encourage fly strike. Also used for this purpose is mulesing. Docking also makes it easier to view a grown ewe's udders to detect potential problems. 

While tail docking is an effective preventive method in some cases, if it is not carried out correctly it may result in other problems such as ill thrift or rectal prolapse... In the UK the law states that for sheep docked tails should at a minimum cover the anus in male lambs, and the vulva in female lambs.

Depending on the animal and the culture, docking may be done by cutting (knife or other blade), searing (gas or electrically heated searing iron), or constriction methods, i.e. rubber ring elastration.

You learn something every day.  Video of the process.  Image via.

Addendum:  Peter Hendry's comment that this is a large-tailed Han from Mongolia, suddenly suggested to me a connection to this:

That is a Pazyryk warrior's coat (Institute of Archeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Science) from 2,500 years ago:

'A peculiar part of his coat is the 'tail', made from the piece of sheepskin 57 to 49 cm in length, and attached from behind."

More information at Siberian Times and in my previous post on Tattoos of the princess of the Sochi paralympics.