Lindner Bison™

Mission Statement:

Lindner Bison is committed to improve the quality of life and educate others about sustainable agriculture and family farming through respectful production of grassfed and grass-finished bison.

Lindner Bison uses and strives to improve ethical food production methods
which embrace
- humane animal husbandry
- sustainable agriculture
- earth-friendly practices
- superior flavor & nutrition
- freedom from added hormones, antibiotics and animal byproducts

Kathy and Ken Lindner, Jr. make up Lindner Bison.

In 1985, Kathy tasted her first buffalo burger on a trip the town where she grew up in Montana. Up to that point, she’d been eating less and less red meat because it seemed to take 2-3 days for her to digest it. What a surprise! Not only was the flavor wonderful and similar to beef, she found she was hungry later that day. Thinking it was just a fluke, she tried it again the second day. Same thing happened. She immediately considered owning bison as a business to produce meat.

Ken has always been a farmer at heart and wanted to find a way to live on the land. So when Kathy suggested bison as a business, he agreed to try the meat. They ordered a tenderloin from a California healthfood store, paid $20 for 4 oz. and waited 2 weeks before they got it. Said Kathy ”I remember looking at that little bitty piece of meat on the plate and trying to figure out how we would do this.” But Ken loved it and their research began. It lasted 3 years before they bought their first animals.

Finally in 2002 Ken left the corporate world behind.  He and Kathy devote their full time and attention to producing and selling grassfed bison. They moved their animals from leased lands onto their own land in northern California. Constant improvements to the irrigated pastures include include humane game fencing, stock tanks, scratching posts and more plans in the works.

Ken and Kathy feel deeply privileged to own such incredible heritage animals who barely survived extinction at the turn of the century. They appreciate the irony that the one sure way to preserve a species is to create a demand for the meat, such as was done with heritage turkeys and other species.

Lindner Bison's animals are managed holistically and sustainably in northern California. They have a home office in southern California and commute to the ranch every few weeks.

Lindner Bison Heritage Ranch


The Cattle Queen’s Legacy

A family cornerstone to Lindner Bison is the legacy left by Kathy’s great-grandmother, Margaret Carlston, after whom Kathy is named.

Saving money from a boarding house she operated at the Jay Gould Mining Camp near Helena, Montana, Mrs. Carlston invested in Montana ranchland. After driving 500 head of cattle across hundreds of miles of open rangeland to just outside of Kathy’s hometown of Livingston, Montana, she became known as the Cattle Queen of Montana®, a title well earned in a rugged frontier. Though she lost nearly everything during the Great Depression, she fought back and managed to hang onto the ranch.

Her steadfast commitment, pride and vision live on as the Lindners bring to enthusiastic red meat lovers, premium grass-finished bison and a new, award-winning combination of two all natural meats native to North America: Bison and turkey.

Quite proudly and simply, Lindner Bison is "The Cattle Queen's Legacy."
	Margaret Carlston, 1861-1931 Cattle Queen of Montana®