Columnists - The Durango Herald

Snow fatigue is reminder of mountain’s benefits

I stand on the edge of the wilderness as the late afternoon glow hits the peaks. Clouds hug the tops of the mountains, signaling the incoming storm. The wind is cold, and the snow blows acro...

DATE: Mar 17, 2023 | CATEGORY: Stewards of the Land

Housing solution must include path to homeownership

Much of the talk this year, particularly around the City Council election, has involved affordable housing. But there has been a curious shift in the language. The preferred term now seems t...

DATE: Mar 17, 2023 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Sarah Shook bringing bands to Durango

Music was a forbidden fruit in the Shook household. River Shook, who tours as Sarah Shook, didn’t follow your typical path toward listening to cool music. There were no early bouts of listen...

DATE: Mar 16, 2023 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Local 4-H stays busy in March

March is a very busy month for La Plata County 4-H. Besides our regularly schedule hunter safety and education training and market beef weigh-in, we have two camps and a Livestock Judging Co...

DATE: Mar 15, 2023 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Colorado state lands offer conservation options

Here in Southwest Colorado, we’re blessed by an abundance of public lands administered by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management. Another land holder is the state of Color...

DATE: Mar 15, 2023 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

Getting down to pressing City Council issues

Many items deserve attention from the 2023 City Council candidates. Civility. Contention among councilors detracts from both their effectiveness and respect from the community. Could the...

DATE: Mar 15, 2023 | CATEGORY: Opinion

BID’s Spring Rewards Program Starts April 1

No fooling, the Durango Business Improvement District’s Spring Rewards Program starts April 1. This program rewards you for shopping local. Save some of your tax return money and spend it lo...

DATE: Mar 14, 2023 | CATEGORY: What's Up Downtown

Silence replaces friendship

DEAR ABBY: I have been friends with a woman I’ll call “Blanche” for 40 years. We used to work together, and we supported each other during our divorces and other life problems. We lost touch...

DATE: Mar 14, 2023 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Parents: Remember that words matter

DEAR ABBY: While shopping at the mall, I have seen too many stressed-out parents ignore or yell at their children. It certainly isn’t helpful. It isn’t how I was raised or how I raised mine....

DATE: Mar 14, 2023 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

A superfood for any budget

What luck that you stumbled across this column. Otherwise, the fact that it’s National Nutrition Month may have slipped past your radar. Seems only fair we dedicate this month’s column to f...

DATE: Mar 14, 2023 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Honoring the life and legacy of Judy Heumann

On March 4, we lost a major champion for disability rights. Advocate, rabble-rouser and longtime disability rights hero Judy Heumann died at age 75. Heumann had been fighting for her rights ...

DATE: Mar 14, 2023 | CATEGORY: Creating Community

Posey’s War in Bears Ears: Telling the Truth a Century Later

By the 1920s, most of the American West had been settled. There were Ford automobiles, telephones, mercantile stores and small town newspapers. But there was also injustice, racism and well-...

DATE: Mar 14, 2023 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

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