Columnists - The Durango Herald

Why not reopen Wilson Gulch exit off U.S. Highway 160?

Dear Action Line: Why is the eastbound exit ramp to Wilson Gulch Drive still closed? I like to get gas at the new Maverik station. It appears all that needs to be done is a final grading...

DATE: Sep 17, 2023 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Celebrating Durango’s Western heritage

Fall is upon us. Change hangs in the air and leaves begin to blow confetti of yellow and orange across the landscape. It is a time I find myself reflecting on the transformations; big and sm...

DATE: Sep 16, 2023 | CATEGORY: Sports

Do full-body MRIs work? Ask your doctor, not Kim Kardashian

In an Instagram post last month that has racked up more than 3.4 million “likes,” Kim Kardashian poses in scrubs alongside an MRI scanner, with a caption alerting her followers to the benefi...

DATE: Sep 15, 2023 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Where the Dead and Steely Dan meet

Steely Dan and the Grateful Dead are top bands of the rock canon. Two bands in who in their day crafted sounds that drifted well beyond the “rock” world, sounds that still get plenty of airp...

DATE: Sep 14, 2023 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Wife returns to marriage

DEAR ABBY: I’ve been married for 34 years. During most of them, I was unfaithful. I never felt like I was truly married because my husband never gave me the time of day, but I liked my marit...

DATE: Sep 14, 2023 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Public can help shape Utah monument

When President Joe Biden restored the original boundaries of both Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments in 2021, public-land lovers felt they had achieved a lasting vic...

DATE: Sep 13, 2023 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Young adult has trouble building relationships

DEAR ABBY: I’m 26 and not currently in a relationship. I don’t have many friends. I’d like to have more, and I try. I wasn’t popular in middle and high school, either. I have been in and out...

DATE: Sep 12, 2023 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

IBS: The truth behind the myths and the power of diet

Irritable Bowel Syndrome, commonly known as IBS, is a term many of us have come across. But what exactly is it? The Mayo Clinic describes IBS as an intestinal disorder; however, its exact r...

DATE: Sep 12, 2023 | CATEGORY: Healing Nutrition

SJBPH emergency compensation: ‘This has become personal’

As the director of communications at San Juan Basin Public Health during part of the COVID-19 pandemic, I feel the need to weigh in on the investigation by La Plata County, into emergency co...

DATE: Sep 10, 2023 | CATEGORY: Opinion

‘Electoral college system effectively disenfranchises most Americans’

Given everything that has happened in the last eight years, it is time to initiate a movement to rid ourselves of the archaic electoral college by means of an amendment to the Constitution....

DATE: Sep 10, 2023 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Mexico is unraveling and nobody seems to care

A local resident, who I’ll refer to as Mario, recently asked me to look over his immigration file. After paying a lawyer more than $20K across five years, an immigration judge in Denver admi...

DATE: Sep 10, 2023 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Some very important idle chatter

Dear Action Line: Boy, are we trying to reduce our carbon emissions here in Durango! The Trolley has been free; there are incentives for e-bikes; our town has quite a few charging statio...

DATE: Sep 9, 2023 | CATEGORY: Action Line

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