Columnists - The Durango Herald

Job change falls heavy on family

DEAR ABBY: My husband, “Andy,” and I have been together 25 years, married for 16. We have three kids ages 14, 11 and 9. Our marriage has always been a happy one. Andy began a government job ...

DATE: Sep 21, 2025 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Celebrating our students’ success: A closer look at student achievement

As we begin another school year, I would like to share the remarkable progress our district has made and address some common misconceptions about how we measure student achievement. The narr...

DATE: Sep 21, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Question 1A: Ensuring core services continue and our shared future thrives

Effective leadership requires adapting and being forward-thinking. We believe leadership in local government comes with the responsibility to guide our communities through both stability and...

DATE: Sep 21, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Our vanishing culture of argument

A guy I knew in college once told me, as I struggled to make a point in a dorm lounge argument, that I had “the verbal acuity of shampoo.” The put-down was so devastating that it immediately...

DATE: Sep 21, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Celebrating our community: The ripple effect of recognition

One of the most powerful tools a chamber has isn’t a policy paper or a ribbon-cutting – it’s a spotlight. Each year, Durango Rocks has been that spotlight. It’s a high-energy celebration of ...

DATE: Sep 19, 2025 | CATEGORY: From the Chamber

Your local energy coach: A new resource helping neighbors save energy and money

Hi friends and neighbors, My name is Erika Brown, the newest member of the team at the Four Corners Office for Resource Efficiency – 4CORE – and I’m honored to serve as your first-ever regio...

DATE: Sep 19, 2025 | CATEGORY: Columnists

New Colorado law prohibits pets for sale in parking lots

As executive director of the La Plata County Humane Society, I’ve seen countless animals being given away in parking lots or sold on street corners that look cute but have been separated fro...

DATE: Sep 19, 2025 | CATEGORY: From the Humane Society

Mom’s change in attitude stumps family

DEAR ABBY: My mom is in her early 80s. More and more often lately, she seems to be avoiding seeing me and my siblings. It wasn’t always like this. She would let me, my husband and our kids s...

DATE: Sep 19, 2025 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

How federal budget cuts are going to affect our community’s food security

Close your eyes and think back to COVID days – Do you remember the empty grocery store shelves? Your grandparents calling asking you to deliver food because Meals on Wheels couldn’t? Folks l...

DATE: Sep 19, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Roadless area protections removed

As overseer of the national forests, the Secretary of Agriculture recently announced her intention to rescind the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule. The Roadless Rule limited construction...

DATE: Sep 17, 2025 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

Rockfest celebrates music community

Music scenes need someone to do the heavy lifting. That “someone” are first fans and musicians, second venue owners and promoters, a collaborative group handling the team effort to make said...

DATE: Sep 17, 2025 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Autumn calls: Keeping up the fight for public lands

With the end of summer in sight and the beginning of fall in the crosshairs, hunters and many others are looking forward to mountainsides of aspens bathed in golden light and the echoes of b...

DATE: Sep 17, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

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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