87--Palomino Valley Center Hay Feeding

L13PS00207, FEEDING OF WILD HORSES AT THE PALOMINO VALLEY CENTER at Sparks Nevada, FOR A 12-MONTH PERIOD, WITH FOUR 12-MONTH OPTIONS. Solicitation number L13PS00207 applies and will be issued on or about February 19, 2013 as a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the following requirement. As excess wild horses and burros are gathered in Nevada they are transported to PVC. The objective of this contract is to procure services for the daily feeding of wild horses and burros awaiting preparation and disposition through the adoption program. This facility is a permanent facility that holds animals temporarily, with a varying number of animals held throughout the year.(a) The Contractor shall provide sufficient personnel to assure the daily feeding of up to 2,000 animals during the peak times (August through March) and as few as 50 animals during the slack times (April through June). The total facility is capable of holding up to 2,000 animals at one time. The Contractor shall arrive between 7 and 8 A.M. daily and provide feeding of wild horses and burros 365 days per year. On most days, work should be completed within 7 hours. (b) The facility consists of 10 outside pens and 36 smaller inside pens. The outside pens are used to maintain the majority of the animals and can hold an average of 200 animals per pen. These pens have large movable hay mangers. The inside pens are used to segregate horses that have just been unloaded from gathers, for loads being shipped out, sick and/or injured animals as well as horses with special needs (i.e. to separate studs, mares, mares with foals and young horses). These smaller pens have permanent hay mangers. Occasionally, the Contracting Officers Representative (COR) or Project Inspector (PI) may direct the Contractor to place hay on the ground. (c) It is anticipated that the feeding services for the wild horses and burros will require at least two contract personnel on a daily basis. Since this facility does not have an automated feeding system, one of the Contractor's employees shall drive the BLM furnished truck and tractor, and the other Contractor employee shall break up the square bales of hay and place them by hand into the hay mangers. (d) The safety and well-being of the Contractor's personnel performing these feeding services shall be the sole responsibility of the Contractor. The behavior/conduct of the Contractor's personnel shall be the full responsibility of the Contractor. (1) The Contractor shall be held accountable for any employee's misconduct, negligence, and/or failure to perform. The Contractor's personnel shall have a working knowledge of feeding large numbers of animals in a feedlot environment. (2) In the event that any one or more contractor personnel are observed performing the required duties in an unsafe manner to the animals, themselves, Government personnel, or endangering the Government Furnished equipment/supplies, the contractor shall be so notified by the COR or PI and the contractor shall provide an immediate replacement person at the facility within two hours of being notified. (e) In as much as the facility is open to the public, the Contractor's employees will perform their duties in a manner that will not bring discredit on the BLM or the contractor. Further, operation of equipment will take into consideration that members of the public may be in the area and utmost caution will be taken. (f) The Contractor and personnel are responsible for any malicious damage or accidental damage of the Government furnished equipment. On a daily basis, prior to operating any item of equipment, the contractor's personnel will perform an inspection of the vehicles/equipment. Vehicle defects identified by the contractor or operator during safety inspections shall be immediately reported to the COR or PI. Repairs for accidental or malicious damage from Contractor use shall be paid for by the contractor. The contractor shall maintain a daily log for each vehicle showing the inspection results and provide same to the COR upon request. (g) The Contractor and personnel are also to be cautious of hitting standing feeders in outside pens. Damage to feeders results in bending legs and damaging the feed truck and trailer. (a) The Contractor shall feed the animals the quantity of hay necessary to satisfy the animal's nutritional needs. The hay required for adult horses is 25 pounds daily and for adult burros is 12 pounds daily. (b) The objective is for all animals to attain and/or maintain a good fleshy condition. Fleshy condition is described as: back level; ribs, not visually distinguishable; wither, rounded; shoulders and neck, blending smoothly into body. If this objective is not being met, a change in feeding will be directed by the PI, and/or the COR. (c) In order to assure that all animals are able to maintain a good fleshy condition, the Contractor shall space the feed in the feeders/mangers so that all the animals are afforded equal access to the feed. After feeding pens, watch for hay falling outside the pen, along fence line and in alleys. It is the responsibility of the contractor to pick up this hay falling outside pens, along fence lines and in alley ways. (d) In the event that the Contractor notices any animals in distress (i.e. sickly; injured; mares with foaling problems; or deceased animals; etc.), the contractor shall immediately notify a BLM representative of the problems so that appropriate action may be taken. The Contractor shall also notify a BLM representative of any water trough malfunction, but not turn off any tanks due to malfunction. (e) The Contractor shall feed all animals in accordance with the requirements set forth above, at least once per day, every day, to include Saturdays, Sundays, and all holidays. Feeding shall be conducted within the hours of 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. All duties are performed out-of-doors and subject to a wide variety of climatic conditions from below 0 degrees in the winter to over 100 degrees in the summer. (f) The Contractor's personnel shall have the ability to drive/operate equipment such as diesel tractor with front-end loader, tractor-trailers, dump trucks, hay squeeze and forklift to perform such tasks as loading/transporting bales of hay through corral system to feed animals. The contractor shall provide the BLM a list of personnel that will be operating the equipment. The Contractor's personnel that will be operating the government furnished equipment shall have passed a proficiency test prior to being authorized to use such equipment. (g) At the end of feeding each day, the contractor will inspect for rocks wedged between dual tires on trucks and trailers to prevent damage to tires. (h) Once per week the contractor needs to wash mud from towing vehicles windshields, tires and undercarriage. During periods when the corrals are extremely wet and muddy, feeding equipment needs to be washed daily to avoid buildup of debris that can cause damage to the feeding equipment. (i) The Contractor's personnel will be required to exert extensive strenuous physical activity in an outdoor environment, such as lifting bales of hay weighing approximately 100 to 130 pounds; operating heavy equipment; standing and bending for long periods as well as walking/working in outdoor corrals. (j) The Contractor shall furnish his personnel with the following equipment: hay chaps, protective clothing, gloves, pitch forks, hay hooks, pliers, wire and twine cutting devices. (a) BLM will provide all the hay and supplemental feed which will be fed at the facility. BLM will provide equipment necessary to perform these feeding services (see paragraph 7.0 for the complete Government Furnished Equipment list. (b) Every morning the Contractor shall check in with the BLM PI and/or the COR for the current count of animals at the facility. BLM representatives will also provide the following information to the Contractor: (1) Type and amount of hay (grass hay, grass/alfalfa mix, and alfalfa hay) to go to each pen. (2) The identity of pens that contain animals that day and the number of animals in each pen. Identify pens that horses will be moved into due to sorting and gathers. (c) If necessary (e.g. when unexpected loads of animals arrive from gathers, when horses are sorted into different pens that were designated that morning, when animals require more feed than was fed, etc.) the Government reserves the right to feed the animals at the facility. Contractor shall check with the PI or COR before leaving to see if there are any changes. (d) BLM will provide for the maintenance and upkeep of the equipment used by the Contractor for use in feeding the horses and burros at the facility. The Contractor should notify the PI or COR of any observed equipment problems that need attention. The Contractor needs only to provide an adequate number of its employees to perform the feeding services on a daily basis. This is not a complete list of the specifications and should be used only as a basis to decide whether or not to review the solicitation. The complete solicitation will be available ONLY at http://www.fedconnect.net. Proposals are due March 12, 2013 by 2:00 PM Mountain Time. Send proposals by U.S. Mail to: Department of the Interior; BLM, BC-663; Attention: Danny Lavergne; BLDG 50, DFC, PO Box 25047; Denver, CO 80225-0047. By express or hand delivery: Department of the Interior; BLM, BC-663; Attention: Danny Lavergne; Mail Room, Entrance S-2; BLDG 50, Denver Federal Center; Denver, CO 80225; By facsimile to +1 (555) 000-0000. Offerers may provide proposals on digital thumb drives along with a hard copy of original signature pages. Thumb drives will not be returned. Hard copies of the solicitation will not be provided. Offerors must be registered at http://www.sam.gov to be eligible for award of a contract.