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Lindner
Feed & Milling
It all started with a canoe…...
Over the last ten years, Lindner Feed & Milling has become a
leader in the show feed arena in the
Southwest, and through several partnerships and cooperative efforts, now
has feed available in more than 20
states across the United States. However, not many people know the
background story of how a family
owned company in Comfort, Texas
has now became a household name
for many stock show families.
Lindner Feed & Milling is a
fourth-generation family owned feed
mill founded in 1938 by the Lindner
Family. In the beginning, the company manufactured and sold commercial dairy, swine, and chicken feed.
Throughout the years products continued to evolve and show feeds were
introduced. Jason and his dad, Ralph,
were instrumental in building the
first pellet mill and Kristin Lindner,
Jason’s wife, tells the story of him
bringing home a pellet out of the first
batch of feed made with that mill
showing the milestone that they had
accomplished. Little did they know
what those first pellets would turn
into years later.
Jason and his brother Matty
grew up raising and showing pigs
and this passion for show pigs is
what led the Lindner family to further pursue pelleted show pig feed in
2002. At the time, Lindner show pig
feed was only sold through the retail
store front at the mill in Comfort, but
it wasn’t just local Hill Country exhibitors coming to Comfort to buy
the feed. Groups from as far as Dimmitt and Nazareth drove back and
forth to get their hands on what they
believed was the best show pig feed
around. (For those of you not familiar with Texas geography, that is a
seven hour trip, one way, to get pig
feed!)
However, there was an opportunity coming to change all of
that and it hinged on an extremely
successful Ag teacher in the panhandle of Texas. Jason met Conda Maze
through mutual friends in the show
industry. Anyone that knows Conda
knows his fierce competitive nature
and the desire to be the very best at
anything he does (from pig showing,
to horse racing, to bucket sticker-
ing!). Conda taught Ag in White
Deer, Texas and occasionally when
they would see each other at a pig
sale or show, Jason would tell him if
he ever stopped teaching, he would
sure like for him to come on board
and help introduce and launch his
show pig feed across the state.
In 2004, after eighteen years
of teaching, with a gentlemen’s
agreement and a handshake, Conda
joined the team, rolled up his sleeves
and started helping make Lindner
Feed available to every customer that
wanted it. Conda’s synopsis of this
beginning goes like this, “When we
started this deal, it was like launching a canoe, full of holes, and with
no oars and we didn’t even have a
Lindner bucket to bail out all the water that was flooding in.” But the
competitive nature in Conda and Jason both didn’t allow the trials, tribulations and set backs at the beginning
to defy them of what they knew this
feed program could be for the youth
of Texas. Once some of the initial
kinks got worked out, things started
snowballing for Lindner Feed &
Milling, and we aren’t just talking
about loads of feed. Exhibitors all
across the state started racking up
banners and wins. Jason decided it
was time to put a sales staff together
to help take the Lindner brand to the
next level and show that this was no
“fly by night” operation. Just a short
two years later, in 2006, came the
first home run for Lindner Feed
when Jay Blasingame of Perryton
FFA exhibited the Grand Champion
Barrow at San Antonio and Beau
Bradley, from Dimmitt, exhibited the
Reserve Grand Barrow. Since then,
Lindner Feed has fed the Grand
Champion Barrow at San Antonio
AND Houston six out of the last
nine years. With the hard work and
dedication of Texas exhibitors, their
families, Ag teachers, County
Agents, and stock show friends,
Lindner feeders have won every major barrow and gilt show in Texas,
repeatedly. In addition, thanks to our
alliances outside of Texas those same
types of wins are being replicated
across the country.
In 2011, Lindner Feed &
Milling teamed up with one of the
largest commercial swine feed operators in the Midwest, JBS United, to
form Lindner-United, making them
Outside the new
pellet mill (above)
and the control
room (below).
“There is no other
company out there
that knows what
show pig feeders
need better than
Lindner, because
the people at
Lindner ARE show
pig feeders!”
Aunt Ruth and Jodi
helping a customer
in the store.
www.lindnerfeed.com
the exclusive manufacturer, marketer and
distributor of Lindner
show pig feeds in the
Midwest. In 2012,
Lindner
expanded
even further by partnering with OH Kruse
in California to distribute Lindner Feed on
the West Coast and
also with Shawnee
Milling & Co., to do
the same in Oklahoma.
The canoe that Conda
likes to refer to in the beginning, has now grown into
quite a large vessel when it
comes to producing and
providing a high quality, proven show pig feed throughout
the
United
States.
Not only
has Lindner seen
success in the
pig ring, but also
in the cattle and
goat
arenas.
Lindner plays a
large role in the
deer feed market
in South Texas and
produces feed commercially for every
species of livestock.
This summer, Lindner Feed &
Milling has more than doubled its manufacturing capacity by adding an additional,
completely new, state of the
art pellet mill facility.
For many of the people that jumped in that canoe
with Conda and Jason at the
beginning, they have seen
some changes over the years
to the Lindner program, mainly when it comes to
marketing and outreach (the feed still
comes in a plain
brown bag, but it
does have a logo on
it now!). The one
thing that will never
change is Jason and
his family’s commitment to
high quality feed products that
work and provide results for
the exhibitors and families
who place their trust in Lindner Feed. For many feeders it
is very comforting to know
that Jason is there at the mill
daily, overseeing products
being made and that his family and all of the sales staff are
pouring out the same feed in
their barns, relying on it to
help their show pig projects
excel as well. Ben Cozart,
father of Kaitlyn Cozart and
Lindner feeder, probably explains it best “There is no other company out there that
knows what show pig feeders
need better than Lindner, because the people at Lindner
ARE show pig feeders."
From the get go, Jason and Conda wanted a team
concept and team effort to
surround the Lindner brand.
From the feed mill, to the distributors, dealers, and feeders
Lindner prides itself on its
commitment to the customer’s success through a team
effort. Conda believes that
customer relations and the
confidence that each person
within the chain has in each
other, is what helps Lindner
continue to grow and flourish
as the market leader in the
southwest. Lindner is constantly listening to the ideas
and needs of its feeders to
provide those products that
they believe they need in order to succeed and to make
those products readily available faster than any other company on the market.
Lindner Feed appreciates each and every person,
whether it be an exhibitor,
an Ag teacher, County
Agent, 4H leader, parent,
grandparent, aunt, uncle,
cousin, or any individual
that is dedicated and committed to showing livestock.
Without these people, the
show program would not
exist and all of our kids
would not have the precious
opportunity that many have
had before them to grow up
in a show barn, competing,
winning and sometimes losing, but learning all the
while. It is with heart felt
gratitude and appreciation
that we as a company thank
everyone for your continued
support of our products and of the greatest youth program
available for kids today!