Columnists - The Durango Herald

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

Have you considered colon screening?

As a primary care physician, I have long been an advocate of colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening in my patients. So, I read with interest a recent publication in the New England Jour...

DATE: Oct 29, 2022 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Ex-wife’s snub saddens father

DEAR ABBY: I just attended my son’s wedding. He married a wonderful woman, and I couldn’t be happier for them. However, I was not acknowledged during their wedding reception, which deeply sa...

DATE: Oct 29, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Brother’s anger hits at home, work

DEAR ABBY: I have a brother I can’t seem to get along with anymore. Sometimes he’s OK, but most of the time he’s not. I visited him recently for a cookout, and it wasn’t good. He got into an...

DATE: Oct 29, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Out-of-control health care in dire need of reform

Over the past 22 years, the price of medical care, including services provided, insurance, drugs and medical equipment, rose faster than prices in the overall economy. Medical prices grew 11...

DATE: Oct 28, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Dreem Machine plays the Starlight Lounge

The music Robin Davis hears in his head is hard rock. One might think its bluegrass or newgrass, as the Pagosa Springs born, raised and based musician may be best known to fans as a bluegras...

DATE: Oct 27, 2022 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Discomfort with trans coach could derail fun

DEAR ABBY: My 9-year-old daughter, “Kennedy,” plays volleyball. One of the assistant coaches is a transgender woman. I had known about the coach before Kennedy started playing. Although I’m ...

DATE: Oct 25, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

La Plata needs stable funding for affordable housing

Like many parts of the world, La Plata County is facing a severe shortage of housing. Our county is lucky to be organizing around use of American Rescue Plan Act funds. La Plata County citiz...

DATE: Oct 24, 2022 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

From plants to roads, life is not always pretty

Dear Action Line: We were hiking close to town and came across two plants growing alongside the trail that looked to be hand-sown. On my handy-dandy phone app, the photos came up identif...

DATE: Oct 24, 2022 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Frisch vs. Boebert symptom of declining democracy

What happens to democracy when you lift the ceiling on campaign spending caps in a highly unequal country? The answer is simple. You get Lauren Boebert versus Adam Frisch for Colorado’s 3rd ...

DATE: Oct 23, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Dad takes back gift after disagreement

DEAR ABBY: For my 50th birthday 10 years ago, my father, with whom I have had a tumultuous relationship, gave me cherished rings as gifts. One was my grandmother’s and the other was my grand...

DATE: Oct 22, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

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