Columnists - The Durango Herald

No appreciation for man’s preferred dress

DEAR ABBY: I am a man who has been wearing lingerie for the past few decades. I discovered my love of panties when I slipped into my first pair at 17. At 22, I discovered the fun and sexines...

DATE: Feb 28, 2023 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Receiving the full experience

When was the last time you tasted your food? Like, really tasted it? Oftentimes we move through our days not fully engaged in what we’re actually doing. We’re thinking about something else o...

DATE: Feb 28, 2023 | CATEGORY: Nourishing Morsels

La Plata County concerned about snail mailer failure

Dear Action Line: There’s a hard-paper insert with our La Plata County property tax bill that basically says the post office is slow and can’t be trusted. And that sending a check by mai...

DATE: Feb 27, 2023 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Head and Neck Cancer

Joe Howard was a good man. As a child, he would intermittently visit my home to chat with my mom. We knew him as “Uncle Buster.” He’d been a chef in restaurants from Kentucky to New York Ci...

DATE: Feb 24, 2023 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Stepmom feels slighted by birthday

DEAR ABBY: I am a first-generation Mexican American who married into a Caucasian blended family. My husband, my stepdaughter, “Lisa,” and her mother and stepfather make up a beautiful unit. ...

DATE: Feb 23, 2023 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Animas City Theatre hosts Snakes and Stars

Musician Michael Travis hasn’t always been on board with electronic dance music. The drummer for Colorado jam-grass band String Cheese Incident had always preferred music being made the trad...

DATE: Feb 23, 2023 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Councilors’ pay must be commensurate with work, service

It’s time to invest in Durango city governance by paying our City Council members a salary commensurate with the experience, responsibility, expertise and aggravation required of important p...

DATE: Feb 23, 2023 | CATEGORY: Opinion

It’s do or die for the Great Salt Lake

Last November, the Great Salt Lake, iconic landmark of the Great Basin Desert, fell to its lowest surface elevation ever recorded. The lake had lost 73% of its water and 60% of its area. Mor...

DATE: Feb 22, 2023 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Snooping wife not sure where to turn

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I have been together for six years, married for four. We have had a lot of marriage issues during the last few years, sexually and otherwise. I no longer trust him ...

DATE: Feb 21, 2023 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

The winter’s tale: Slippin, slidin’, sneerin’ (or not)

Dear Action Line: I was walking downtown on East Second Avenue on Feb. 7 and was surprised the sidewalk around the city-owned Carnegie Building (former library) was not shoveled. Is the ...

DATE: Feb 20, 2023 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Exactly why should we spay or neuter our pets?

February is recognized as spay and neuter month; the last Tuesday of the month is considered World Spay Day. As pet owners, we often hear about the importance of spaying or neutering our pe...

DATE: Feb 18, 2023 | CATEGORY: From the Humane Society

Ramping Up: SJMA’s education programs continue to grow

All of the snow we got in January sure has been a sight! Perhaps you’ve watched your dog happily run out into the white wonderland, only to promptly drop from sight in fresh heaps of powder....

DATE: Feb 18, 2023 | CATEGORY: Stewards of the Land

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