A little more about us.
Who We Are
A lot can change in one hundred years, but for those of us at Math Farms, family farming and ranching have been a part of our lives for over a century. In 1915, Bob Math’s great-grandfather, Phillip Math, relocated from Germany and homesteaded in Montana where he ran mostly Herefords. Math Farms has been around ever since and will be going on its 6th generation with Bob’s grandchildren.
Located on the Canadian border north of Whitewater, Montana, we have a challenge within our operation; brutally cold winters. While managing livestock in this weather is difficult, this has allowed us to raise high-quality cattle that can perform well in these conditions. While extreme weather is common in Montana, it opened up the opportunity to differentiate our operation from other producers, and we are taking advantage of it.
“We try to raise cattle appropriate for our weather. The winters are harsh, while summers are hot and dry, and calving is pretty tough. We want to raise calves that can get up and get to suckling right away and mothers that can continually work to get the weight on the calves.”
- Cody Math
The “Farm” in Math Farms
Our decision to sell in the winter, rather than spring, in part was made due to the fact that we have a lot of other things going on at that time. When we aren’t calving or breeding, we are farming spring wheat, barley, and pulse crops. All of this creates an issue when attempting to throw a production sale into the mix.
Selling later has proved to work well, and feeding them differently than we have done in the past has allowed us to develop a better bull.
“We are feeding them a little differently too. We don’t grow corn because we don’t have the water to do so, but we can grow other crops. We thought that pulse crops--yellow peas and chickpeas, for example--which are put into human food because they are packed with protein could be a good option, so we feed them that, along with triticale, grass, and distiller grains. I want to give them more protein because that makes strong and sound bulls, which hold up longer in any condition and terrain.”
- Cody Math
Our Expectations
We strive for an attractive mother cow with an excellent disposition, a strong foot, and great mothering ability. Vigorous calves should come easy and hit the ground growing.
“We want easy handling cattle with nice bags and good feet. Spring is a demanding time on everyone at the farm, including the cows. Nobody has time for poor mothers, bad udders, and limpy, long toes.
- Cody Math
Our hope is that those crucial traits carry on through our bulls, to our customer’s future females.