Columnists - The Durango Herald

‘What did you do this summer?’

This is the age-old first day of school assignment, ice-breaker exercise. I love summer and had a good one. Some travel, lots of swimming, good food from the garden, fun times with friends, ...

DATE: Sep 3, 2022 | CATEGORY: Authentic Aging

Husband tired of being ignored at home

DEAR ABBY: I have been with my wife for 25 years, married for 22 of them. I love her very much, but sometimes I feel it isn’t mutual. We have three children, all girls, ranging in age from e...

DATE: Sep 2, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Colorado leading the charge in building a comprehensive suicide prevention model

September is National Suicide Prevention Month and San Juan Basin Public Health is working hard in a national coalition to help prevent suicide in our communities and beyond. The Colorado-N...

DATE: Sep 2, 2022 | CATEGORY: Creating Community

There’s more to fly fishing than catching

Just getting out can be rewarding

DATE: Sep 2, 2022 | CATEGORY: Flies & Lies

‘Tragedy of the commons’ explains fake news crisis

Fake news, disinformation and conspiracy theories abound. If you want to understand the crazy, mixed-up, 21st century information ecosystem, think about it as what is called a “tragedy of th...

DATE: Sep 2, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

New beau sets conditions for marriage

DEAR ABBY: About a year ago, I started a long-distance relationship with a widower. His wife died four years ago. He told me he slept on the couch a long time and got very little sleep after...

DATE: Sep 1, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Adam Swanson returns to Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College

Pianist Adam Swanson is returning to the music venue where his college music studies ended. He’s been a mainstay of downtown Durango’s music scene since he began playing ragtime piano in th...

DATE: Sep 1, 2022 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Three’s a crowd in budding romance

DEAR ABBY: I recently met the love of my life, and I’m planning to leave my life and family in Arkansas and move to California to marry him. He’s recently divorced after a 25-year marriage. ...

DATE: Aug 31, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

‘Politicizing public safety makes no one safer’

In the race for attorney general, voters deserve an honest conversation about public safety. A recent opinion piece by the Republican Chair Kristi Burton Brown strayed far from that standard...

DATE: Aug 31, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Ghosts over the Animas? Top-secret military maneuvers?

Dear Action Line: On July 8, right around sunset, I saw something odd over the Animas River. I pulled over and saw what looked almost like little miniature steam tornadoes over the Anima...

DATE: Aug 29, 2022 | CATEGORY: Action Line

As monkeypox spreads, know the signs, symptoms

Perhaps you have heard about the global outbreak of monkeypox, which started in the spring? Earlier this month, the United States declared this outbreak a public health emergency. To date, ...

DATE: Aug 27, 2022 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Stakeholders object to Next Step design, want smaller upgrades

Small businesses are the backbone of Durango’s economy. Surviving the Gold King Spill, the 416 Fire, the 2020 pandemic, and now the 2022 labor and supply chain shortages. Businesses are aski...

DATE: Aug 27, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

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