Trucking pheasant chicks across the country is complicated–there’s routing, crating, dropping off schedules, creating drivers’ schedules, arranging deliveries to reduce costs for us and our customers, road construction, and the weather. This spring, we had more hoops to jump through because of Avian Influenza embargoes.
Until a couple of weeks ago, the state hadn’t been given an “all clear’ to send chicks to Canada and we had two standing orders to fill. We needed to get 8,000 chicks to Quebec and 10,000 to Alberta. The embargo in Wisconsin, which has since been lifted, meant we had to go to a friendly competitor for help, so the chicks shipped out of Kansas.
One of our team members handled the paperwork. She got on-line and got the necessary forms filled out, made sure the vet certificates were in order, and got the paperwork together to send drivers to pick up the chicks. We had to go to two hatcheries to get enough to fill the orders.
We still had logistic issues. In some states our drivers had to avoid certain counties that were embargoed. In other situations our drivers had to avoid entire embargoed states. One slip up and we’d be turned back at the border leaving unhappy customers.
The pheasant chicks going to Alberta had to avoid Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, and Nebraska. They traveled through Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana and crossed into Canada. The pheasant chicks going to Quebec had to avoid Missouri, Iowa, and parts of Kansas. They went down to Oklahoma, through Arkansas and then up to cross over into Canada in Champlain, NY.
The trips took about an extra 10 hours each. We usually send two drivers to make sure one has down time while the other drives–but the sleeper berths certainly got a work out, as did the office staff that checked and double checked the routes for last minute embargoes, and our logistics supervisor who planned the routes.
This was an unusual situation, but we got the job done and the orders got filled. Customer service is important at MacFarlane Pheasants, real people answer our phones when customers call, and when we promise a delivery we do our best to get you your birds.
