Columnists - The Durango Herald

Marie Curie’s year

We just passed the 155th anniversary of Marie Curie’s birth. She was born Nov. 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland. She was the first woman scientist to win a Nobel Prize – 1903 in physics and in 191...

DATE: Nov 17, 2022 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Proposed solar project not right solution

Developing renewable energy such as solar is a good idea. Besides the environmental issues from using fossil fuels, it would be wise to get this country free of importing oil and gas from a ...

DATE: Nov 17, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Tips to thrive this holiday season

Are you ready to thrive this holiday? Let’s do this! With the holidays come a few challenges such as 1) all the traditional foods and family favorites that can leave you feeling deprived if ...

DATE: Nov 15, 2022 | CATEGORY: Strength in Well-being

Wife is second-class citizen in own home

DEAR ABBY: I have been married for five years. My husband and I are both past middle age and have been married before (me twice; three times for him). For much of our early marriage, my husb...

DATE: Nov 15, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Reader: Get busy living

DEAR ABBY: I read the letter from the woman who is feeling alone at 66 and pondering the purpose of life (“Living Life in Texas,” July 25). Assuming she’s in good health, she’s a spring chic...

DATE: Nov 15, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Desperately seeking relevance on Alzheimer’s journey

Oct. 12, 2022: Awful. This is what it feels like to have Alzheimer’s. I want to cry. I want to give up in frustration. I’m scared. I don’t know who I am. I played pickleball with people I’ve...

DATE: Nov 13, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

College includes all educational opportunities

The Durango Herald article on Sept. 19, “As Labor Market Struggles, Are More Students Foregoing College?” raises a question I hear many students and families wondering about. Does colleg...

DATE: Nov 13, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

‘I didn’t know’

I didn’t know. Mother had Alzheimer’s. I worked with people in the nursing home with ALZ. I helped people placing their loved ones. I thought I knew but I didn’t. I didn’t know each journey ...

DATE: Nov 13, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Disabled civil rights activist Lois Curtis dies at 55

As a young woman, Lois Curtis was imprisoned. Curtis was not a criminal. She hadn’t even been accused of a crime. The only thing Curtis had done was be born with a disability in a society th...

DATE: Nov 12, 2022 | CATEGORY: Creating Community

San Juan Mountains Association preparing for Christmas tree fundraiser

As the seasons change in Southwest Colorado, I’m reminded how much I look forward to stoking the fire, sitting back and enjoying the radiant warmth. Fall is a time to prepare and stock up fo...

DATE: Nov 12, 2022 | CATEGORY: Stewards of the Land

Steens Mountain, Oregon: Buckaroos, Basques and glacial gorges

Way out west where ranchers’ mailboxes are 50-gallon drums set on their side, I drove northwest of Winnemucca on a straight-line course to Denio, Nevada. As I crossed into Oregon the only tr...

DATE: Nov 12, 2022 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

Keep an eye out for Perseus

Greetings, stargazers. It feels great to be back on standard time and not have to leave the house before sunrise. I know some of you are not liking the early evening darkness, but I hope Co...

DATE: Nov 12, 2022 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

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