Letters to the Editor - The Durango Herald

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Unity is paramount, land acknowledgment is divisive

Fort Lewis College opens performances and semesters with a “land acknowledgment.” That is harmful to society. It separates "we the people" into those who are rightfully here and those who ar...

DATE: Sep 14, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Honoring a longtime volunteer: Tom Jones

Tom Jones sat on the Five Rivers Trout Unlimited (5RTU) board for years all while holding multiple positions, including past president. He was passionate about helping our native cutthroat t...

DATE: Sep 14, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Read, think about, and honor the Constitution this week

Celebrating the privilege of our liberty and freedom this year, the 238th anniversary of the signing of the Constitution of the United States of America, I urge all Americans to stop a momen...

DATE: Sep 14, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Honoring a (nother) longtime volunteer: Buck Skillen

“Just ask Buck” has been a mantra of Five Rivers Trout Unlimited (5RTU) since Buck Skillen reinvigorated the chapter in the late ’90s. Buck spent more than two decades responding to every, t...

DATE: Sep 14, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Israel is committing genocide, scholars conclude

I wanted to express my gratitude to The Durango Herald for the editorial board’s thoughtful editorial, “Our view: Silencing Gaza’s journalists silences the world,” (Herald. Aug. 31), for spe...

DATE: Sep 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Herald’s Hamas apologists have it wrong

After reading the editorial, “silencing Gazas journalists silences the world,” (Herald, Aug. 31), accusing Israel of every conceivable crime ever committed, they cowered in the face of some ...

DATE: Sep 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Grass choice wastes water and teaching moment

I’m bewildered about all the Kentucky bluegrass installed at Miller Middle School. It’s not only on the football/soccer field; it’s everywhere, even places that will be impossible to mow. I ...

DATE: Sep 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Thank you, but why did you wait so long?

I am writing in regard to the editorial “Silencing journalists in Gaza silences the world,” (Herald, Aug. 31). As a second generation Palestinian who’s father’s family had to leave Haifa, Pa...

DATE: Sep 10, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Jackson Clark II's passing magnifies Fort Lewis' lack of courage

In April 2025, Fort Lewis College denied Jackson Clark II, owner of Toh-Atin Gallery, the opportunity to present his talk “Saving Navajo Weavings” at their Life-Long Learning Lecture Series ...

DATE: Sep 10, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

A war against the Constitution

Kudos to The Durango Herald for coming out as anti-American. I’ve watched the numerous pro-illegal-immigrant articles, over the years, the solicitous articles about socialist/Marxist movemen...

DATE: Sep 10, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Puzzles and funnies magic tricks?

Page 4B of the Aug. 29 edition is the Aug. 22 page. The puzzles and funnies are from the Aug. 22 edition. How did you do that? Steve Grant Durango ...

DATE: Sep 10, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Immigration laws should be enforced, not ignored

I lived in San Diego for almost 50 years before moving to Southwest Colorado. From time to time, I did business in Baja California. I had to have the proper insurance for my vehicle along wi...

DATE: Sep 7, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Photos: Durango High School boys golf competes at stateDemons finished 14th after two rounds at Fox Hill Club in Longmont

Demons finished 14th after two rounds at Fox Hill Club in Longmont

Photos: Cowboy Gathering Social and Parade

Photos: High County Cattle Auction

High Country Cattle Auction brings top-notch stock and country charm to Southwest ColoradoFamily run, generational business dates back to 1940s

BREEN – The family-owned and operated High Country Cattle Auction is “in the bones” of the Cugnini family, said third-generation owner Chris Cugnini. The business was founded by Chris’ grandfather, Pat Cugnini, in the 1940s. Pat then passed the business down to his son, Duane Cugnini, who then turned the business over to daughters, Becky Hawkins and Chris Cugnini, whose daughters plan to take over the family business one day. The auction, which takes place once or twice a month from April to January at 13062 La Plata Highway (Colorado Highway 140) near Breen, attracts ranchers, farmers and those in the cattle industry from far and wide.

Former Durango resident Steve Greenburg has been attending the High Country Cattle auction for more than 40 years, and continues to travel to Breen all the way from Arizona, where he now lives. He attended the September auction last week, where around 1,200 animals were up for sale. Greenburg said effective bidding takes concentration and a practiced hand. “You want to make sure you don’t pay too much,” he said. “And if you do, you want to buy the business.” Amber Belvin, employee of 15 years and Chris’ operations “sidekick,” said bidders are most often looking for signs of good health in an animal, like a plump, filled-out body. If bidding on a herd, a look of uniformity among the animals is key to a good purchase, she said.

Despite Greenburg already having a handful of filled out bidding cards marking the cattle he had won within an hour of the Sept. 23 auction, he said the day was young. One sale day last year culminated in Greenburg taking home 22 semi-trucks worth of cattle, he said. Chris said Greenburg is one of the auction’s longest-term and most generous supporters. “(Greenburg) pays top-dollar,” Chris said. “And (that) makes me feel good, because we’re giving back to (the sellers). I know these people around here, and they’re the hardest working people on the planet. If I can get them 10 or 20 cents more per pound, then that makes us happy.”

Cattle auction prices have gone up in recent years, both at High Country and nationally, Chris said. This year, animals are going for $2,500 to $3,000 a head – double and triple the average prices from last year. The increase, Chris said, is in part because of a screw worm making the rounds in cattle in Mexico, which has lowered the number of cattle coming in from the south, along with people subdividing and selling cattle branches, and local cattle herd numbers diminishing, which has increased demand.

Chris called the price increase “good and bad.” “It’s great if you’re a seller, because there’s prices that you’ve never seen before,” she said. “Older men come in, (and they) can’t believe the prices. Some of them do this for a living, and they count on that, so they’re so happy.” Belvin said some smaller farmers opt to buy less cattle during price surges like this, but echoed Chris’ sentiment about sellers being ecstatic about the unprecedented profit.

Local cattle farmer Lawrence Martinez entered 59 steers and 95 heifers in the auction Tuesday. Martinez has been involved in the High Country Cattle Auction “pretty much forever,” but recent years have been especially fruitful for sales, he said. “These last few years, we’ve been coming here to sell, because this is the place to go,” he said. “I wouldn’t sell anywhere else. (The market here has) been so good.”The auction’s community roots and generational touch doesn’t stop at the Cugnini family: Shane Hatch, the auctioneer, took over the job after his father’s death, Belvin said.

The auction serves as an opportunity for community members to get together and bond, Belvin said. “When we do have an auction, it’s a great place where local farmers and ranchers can get together and talk,” she said. “They come to the cafe, and they talk about the hay, and the drought situation, and I think it’s a good connecting point.” Chris and Belvin both expressed feeling glad the auction can supply so much generational value to the local farming and ranching community. “I mean, what other business can you think of around here that’s the same, right?” Belvin said. “We’re fair, and we’re very meticulous at our jobs. We take it very seriously, because this is (some peoples’) livelihood.”

For the Cugninis – and long-term employees like Belvin, who have become an honorary part of the close-knit High Country Cattle Auction family – the heart of the business aligns with the heart of the local farming and ranching community. “We’re just good, hard working people – Americans – that want to make a good living, and live off this great land,” Belvin said. epond@durangoherald.com

Family run, generational business dates back to 1940s