Bulls brought from America for breed improvement

Ministry of Agriculture of Nepal has just received 7 bulls from the United States of America. The project had been initiated under the Nepal Livestock Sector Innovation Project (NLSIP). The project was granted to Met Group to supply the livestock, Met Group is a registered supplier agency and has been facilitating the projects under the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Defense and various governmental and nongovernmental projects. The project intended to satisfy the need of farmers with better quality bulls and Siemens improvising the milk production from the cows. The supply of the bulls hopes to create better qualitative breeds and a new generation of American bulls in Nepal. Historically the last project that had been successful in Nepal was back in 1847 when, during the Rana Regime, Late Jung Bahadur Rana had imported Jersey Bulls from Britain as a goodwill gesture.

This is the first project enlisted in the budget from the Ministry of Finance and is funded by the World Bank which is a dream project under the Ministry of Agriculture taking place after a span of almost 10 decades .

The project had an agreement to supply 2 Holstein Bulls and 5 Jersey Bulls of 100 percent pure and qualitative breeds to NLSIP  to improvise the agricultural and livestock needs of the farmers. The project aimed to improve the quality of production for the farmers and, since Nepal is an agricultural country, the project was entirely a case of national interest.

Quoted by Mr. Sarin K.C, Director of Met Group, who shared with us his long journey and experience in allocating the bulls from Chicago, USA to Nepal,  "Managing logistics and moving live animals is the hardest job that can be undertaken all over the world. Especially in country like Nepal, where there is no service for cargo aircraft movement as there are no scheduled cargo flights in Nepal and, in order to move the bulls directly to Nepal, all the bulls had to be chartered to Nepal, which was the biggest challenge overall."

For this special project, the bulls had to be moved with high care while also ensuring animal welfare and international rules and regulations, which make it so challenging that the transit and delivery of the shipment had taken more time than what was agreed. Due to the pandemic, the world wide transportation had been highly impacted and aviation industry had been majorly hit during. In these circumstances, the delivery of these bulls seemed almost close to impossible.

The project was undertaken and supervised by Quick Freight Logistics, which is an organization based in Nepal. Mr. Pawan Shrestha (Managing Director/Founder of Quick Freight Logistics) said, “Managing these types of projects take relentless efforts and a lot of time and dedication It's not just about being able to manage the movement; considering the welfare of the livestock while transportation takes a lot of preplanning and a lot of close contact supervisions with all the sides. I personally believe that it was all a team effort but more than that the spirit of national interest and this being an impossible project at first glance filled the project with so much of dedication and personalized emotions that we never gave up till we got this project done. We would like to express our humble gratitude and thanks to the entire team of Nepal Airlines Corporation, who supported this project to the best they could have possibly done. This was totally a challenging project for everyone involved, but surely the efforts paid off when the bulls were safely transported to Nepal."

The project followed a series of challenges and was seriously impacted by the pandemic. The bulls were picked up from Chicago from AG Worldwide who is the supplier of these bulls. They were crated and were planned to be moved by Qatar Airways from Chicago to Doha and from Doha to Kathmandu on Nepal Airlines' plane. The project suffered an initial loss as the first flight plan booked to Doha had to be cancelled due to the connecting flight of Nepal Airlines not being confirmed due regulatory compliances not met in Doha Airport. Since Doha Airport did not allow the transit clearance and movement of live animals, the project had to be restructured and movement had to be coordinated by an alternative station where Nepal Airlines had regular flights operation, for which Delhi was selected. The second flight connecting was delayed by a month to which the health papers and the quarantine of the bulls had to be redone in Chicago which led to additional losses and burden. At this point Mr. Sarin quoted, "We almost thought of giving up but something was always there in this project that we all kept pushing so much and we really wanted to finish this project no matter what. Financial pressure were already out of the roof."

Finally after a long month of planning after receiving all necessary papers and confirmation from the transit station, the project was back to life again. This was the second attempt and everyone had their hopes high. The project faced another turbulence when Qatar Airways rescheduled the flight and postponed it by a week more, which led to the connecting flight from Delhi to Kathmandu fly back without the bulls. Mr. Pawan quotes, "At this point we almost felt like luck is not on our side but we were not giving up so easily. It was a lot of team work as I said; we had to centralize all our efforts and work hand-in-hand with Nepal Airlines to sequence the flight and connection but time was of the essence and time was the only thing which we never had."

The bulls were finally planned again to a locked confirmation on flight and movement and the connecting flight was accordingly planned to bring the bulls to Nepal .

During the entire transition, all the things had to be monitored - the flight hours, the transit time, the ground time, the connecting flight transit time and ground time. The bulls were finally lifted on flight from Chicago Airport but, with delays of 14 hours, the bulls were moved to Doha and then to Delhi the following day only. Mr. Pawan quotes, “This time the momentum was so huge that even we knew that the Project cost had touched its highest loss mark. We wanted to do it so much that we almost never looked back. Since we followed a 14-hour delay departure, we booked the connecting flight the very next day which increased the project cost so much more than it had been expected“

The bulls landed in Delhi at 2:55 A.M and the ground team started taking all necessary actions for the shifting and the documents, keeping in mind the first priority being the welfare of the bulls' health and their conditions. The same day, Nepal Airlines had scheduled a wide body operation to Delhi and the bulls were loaded and brought to Nepal. This is the first time Nepal Airlines had attempted a live animal transport and to a glorious remark. The first attempt was the successful one. “I recall the happiness in the voices of our Delhi-Nepal Airlines Representatives when they informed us final doors closed and we are ready to move.“ It was a feeling of glory and pride that our national carrier is flying our bulls to a project of national interest .

The bulls were delivered to NSLIP on 25th February, the same day they had landed.

Mr. Sarin Quotes “We suffered a huge financial drawback on this project as this was an impossible project undertaken by us and our team but we are optimistic that the days ahead look bright and we will continue to serve at our best no matter what situations arise. The bottom line is we brought the bulls. The project was almost called off but our team made the impossible happen. I would like to personally thank NSLIP and it's team members who gave us this project. Mr. Pawan Shrestha, Managing Director and Founder of Quick Freight Logistics and our handling agent for this project, Nepal Airlines for their outstanding support and cooperation without whom this project could not had been successful, AG Worldwide our supply partners overseas, our Delhi team who had helped us manage the cargo transfer and documentations and everyone who had supported us in making this project successful."