Columnists - The Durango Herald

Make your voice heard

Voting is an important part of our country and government. It’s an opportunity to engage in helping determine the future of our county, region, state and nation, and it significantly impacts...

DATE: Nov 5, 2022 | CATEGORY: From the Chamber

Better worlds start with great families and great families start with Nurse-Family Partnership

Becoming a new parent can be exciting, scary, challenging, rewarding and much more. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the support of a free personal nurse during pregnancy and after your baby arri...

DATE: Nov 5, 2022 | CATEGORY: Creating Community

In season of giving, remember that community is vitally important

For the vast majority – if not all – of us, the end of the outdoor growing season arrived during the last couple weeks of October. For us, it was a light knock on the door, with temperatures...

DATE: Nov 5, 2022 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Marriage raining on music man’s parade

DEAR ABBY: I’m a middle-aged married man and the father of two. Although I work as a banker, I’m also an aspiring pianist. I have practiced two to three hours a day for many years. My music ...

DATE: Nov 5, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Where can I cast a fly?

Tips on finding good spots to fish in different states

DATE: Nov 4, 2022 | CATEGORY: Sports

Carsie Blanton and her punk rock approach

Carsie Blanton does things the punk rock way. The Philadelphia-based musician’s sound wouldn’t be classified as “punk” to the average ear and audible descriptions, for punk-rock is a bottoml...

DATE: Nov 3, 2022 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Widow AWOL after new romance

DEAR ABBY: My dear friend “Rose’s” husband died five years ago, and since then she has struggled with grief and loneliness. She immersed herself in her church, friends and family. We usually...

DATE: Nov 3, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

You’re invited to community workshops

Visit Durango is excited to announce we have scheduled several community workshops that will be taking place throughout La Plata County. The purpose of these workshops is to have an open dis...

DATE: Nov 2, 2022 | CATEGORY: The Tourism Effect

Slow down to receive more

One of the things I love the most about this time of year is the magical way time seems to slow down. Everything seems to be taking its own sweet time – the changing of the leaves, the first...

DATE: Nov 1, 2022 | CATEGORY: Nourishing Morsels

Dating life a roller-coaster ride

DEAR ABBY: Since my divorce, I have started dating again. I was seeing a firefighter until I realized he was married with kids. Yes, I was angry with him for hiding the truth from me from th...

DATE: Nov 1, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

From illegal 4-wheelers to Warhol comparisons

Dear Action Line: My husband and I were enjoying a bike ride up on our Horse Gulch trails yesterday afternoon (Oct. 12). We came up from Carbon Junction and headed onto Sidewinder. Much ...

DATE: Oct 31, 2022 | CATEGORY: Action Line

The challenge of being an extra-large dog

Keith Anderson sings a song about being a XXL guy ,and I can’t help but feel similar about extra-large dogs. These beefy-puppies typically have it rough growing up because their bodies get b...

DATE: Oct 29, 2022 | CATEGORY: From the Humane Society

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