SMD Ellie Nel, a 2023 daughter of Nelson won Grand Champion Cow at 2025 Nebraska State Fair Dexter Show

SMD MacBen Nel, a yearling bull calf, son of Nelson won Reserve Grand Champion Bull at 2025 Nebraska State Fair Dexter Show.

Now four years old and entering his prime, standing 45 inches at the hip, SMD Lord Baron Nelson is producing and displaying exactly what he was bred to do. Moderate, correct, functional, and excellent breed type, he brings a balance of substance and softness, thickness and temperament, along with genetics that are further moving the bar across multiple SMD focus traits.

 

He’s the son of SMD Baron MacDuff, a bull known for stamping depth, capacity, length, and durability, and out of SMD Nellie Ferl, a standout SMD foundation cow and national champion with exceptional depth, width, and udder structure. That pairing has produced the results we expected and hoped.

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Nelson’s first daughters are freshening this year, and their udder traits represent an across-the-board improvement on some of the best-uddered cows in the SMD herd. That’s no small feat. We’re seeing improved teat placement and size, with no falling off in fore udder attachment, rear udder height, or width. It’s the kind of progress that comes from stacking generations of quality with intent and discipline.

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His second set of steers are about to enter finishing, and we’re expecting live weights in the 750–780 lb range, with 450–480 lb hanging weights at 19 months.

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As for temperament, Nelson remains a joy to handle, calm, responsive, and willing, whether in the pasture or on the halter. There’s nothing difficult about him. He works through any situation without stress or struggle, and his offspring are showing that same Dexter-right attitude.

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Breed type isn’t about flash. It’s about form following function, inherited and expressed in offspring.