Columnists - The Durango Herald

‘Mixed in Mancos’ bringing new energy

Erik Nordstrom is a champion of the regional music scene. He’s played scores of shows around the area as a member of bands Lawn Chair Kings and Farmington Hill, and if he’s not playing with ...

DATE: Feb 28, 2024 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

House Bill 1296 ‘a lot of power to put in hands of record keepers’

There’s a new buzzword in Colorado politics: vexatious. If that word wasn’t on your 2024 bingo card, join the club. Yet here we are, so let’s go down the rabbit hole of House Bill 1296, a bi...

DATE: Feb 28, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Rosa Parks ‘had all the time in the world to talk’

It was 2 p.m. on a recent Sunday in the western Colorado town of Paonia, population 1,500. Not an ideal time to gather a crowd to meet the famous Rosa Parks, the woman who kicked off the mod...

DATE: Feb 28, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Toxic beauty standards can be passed down

When my best friend and I lived together 13 years ago, our shared bathroom had a handful of products: soap, tanning lotion, deodorant, toothpaste, potpourri and maybe, occasionally, a face c...

DATE: Feb 25, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

‘Disinformation, plain old lies take place of facts, data’

In any community, there always have been, and always will be, areas of conflict and disagreement. These disputes have gotten deeper in the last dozen years or so. As we go through rapid chan...

DATE: Feb 25, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Relatives can’t stomach another visit

DEAR ABBY: We have grown children and a grandchild who live several states away. The problem is, we don’t enjoy visiting them. Our son’s wife has an eating disorder. She’s obsessed with what...

DATE: Feb 24, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Reducing the barriers to pet adoption

Over time, the adoption process for pets has become more and more complex. Lengthy and often arduous applications, home visits, reference checks and inquiries with landlords all contribute t...

DATE: Feb 23, 2024 | CATEGORY: From the Humane Society

‘Pain a minor reason patients choose PAS’

Compassion for individuals confronting a terminal illness drove the efforts to legalize physician-assisted suicide, or PAS (also known as medical aid in dying), in Colorado in 2016. Compassi...

DATE: Feb 23, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Medical condition leads to marriage’s breakup

DEAR ABBY: I suffered an injury that caused internal bleeding, which then gave me iron deficiency anemia. I was battling its symptoms of depression and anxiety before I was diagnosed. Never ...

DATE: Feb 22, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

A.J. Lee and Blue Summit happy to play music

A.J. Lee’s foray into bluegrass music started with her mom and a pizza place. Her mom was a big fan of country music as well as a vocalist, playing out now and then while also coming up with...

DATE: Feb 21, 2024 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Man weighs revealing health status

DEAR ABBY: I am a gay man who came out late in life. I have three grown, married children and five grandchildren. They are my world, and we are all very close. I’ve had one partner. My famil...

DATE: Feb 21, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

A love letter to the American West

Forget chocolate candies and flowers that fade. My heart belongs to the Great American West, to its history, folklore and unhurried, yet wild ways. From grandpas to outlaws, I come from a l...

DATE: Feb 18, 2024 | CATEGORY: Sports

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