87--ELM CREEK HAY FEEDING CONTR.2012

L12PS00250, FEEDING OF WILD HORSES AT THE ELM CREEK, NEBRASKA HOLDING FACILITY, FOR A 12-MONTH PERIOD, WITH TWO 12-MONTH OPTIONS. Solicitation number L12PS00250 applies and will be issued on or about March 20, 2012 as a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the following requirement: The Bureau of Land Management's Elm Creek, NE Holding Facility has a requirement for feeding services 7 days per week for 12 months, from July 1, 2012 to June 30, 2012, with an option for 2 more 12-month periods. The Elm Creek Wild Horse and Burro Facility is located at 5050 100th Road, Elm Creek, Nebraska. Offerors shall provide a firm fixed monthly unit price for the base year, option year 1 and option year 2. BACKGROUND - Wild horses and burros on public lands administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service are protected, managed and controlled under the provisions of the Act of December 15, 1971, as amended (16 US. 1331-1340). As resource conditions and other factors warrant, excess wild horses and burros are removed from the public lands and placed in facilities for preparation to be placed in private maintenance through the Adopt-A-Horse program.- The Wild Horse and Burro Center at Elm Creek (EC) is the primary holding facility for wild horses and burros making their way to private homes across the United States through the Adopt-A- Horse program. Routinely, EC receives animals from western facilities and conversely ships them to adoption locations around the mid-west, southern, and eastern United States. The facility maintains throughout the year 400-500 animals on a daily basis. In addition, EC receives wild horses to rest overnight from western facilities going to Long-term holding pastures in the mid-west.-The objective of this contract is to procure services for the feeding of these animals as they arrive from the western facilities and await transport to adoption locations around the country or long-term holding pastures. -The successful Contractor shall provide the daily feeding on average of 400-500 animals 365 days a year, to include all unloading of large round bale hay shipments that arrive at EC from the hay contractor. Approximately, 195 tons of hay will be shipped per month, and shipments will include large round bales and small square bales.- Contractor Furnished Equipment Required: as a minimum, the contractor will provide a tractor or loader with a round-bale grapple loader capable of transporting round bales to the necessary feeders on the facility. The tractor will be required to have front assist capability because of the steep grades and slippery conditions during wet times. - The contractor provided tractor will remain on the facility 7 days a week to ensure that in the case of bad weather the tractor will be available to the facility to feed horses and not need to be transported to the facility in poor weather conditions. The facility consists of 9 large outside pens and 21 smaller pens. The outside pens are used to house the majority of the animals and can house 50-80 animals per pen. The outside pens have movable, large round-bale feeders. The smaller inside pens consist of 10 pens used for animals being ready for shipment or adoption events. Five of the smaller pens are used for BLM saddle horses or animals requiring special attention. The smaller pens have hanging feeders requiring the use of small square bales and several have round-bale feeders which can be used. There are also 6 isolation pens used to house sick or injured animals and have permanent feeders requiring the feeding of small square bales. It is anticipated that the feeding services for the wild horses and burros will require at least two contract personnel, one to operate the front-end loader tractor and one to operate the pickup on a daily basis, and a second person to open and close gates. The feeding contractor, the hay contractor, and the BLM COR shall coordinate all delivery times to ensure that hay is delivered and unloaded in a timely and efficient manner. 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. 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 April 16, 2012 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. Hard copies of the solicitation will not be provided. Offerors must be registered at http://www.ccr.gov to be eligible for award of a contract.