Columnists - The Durango Herald

From processed to powerful: Why whole foods are your best weight loss weapon

Have you ever felt stuck in your weight loss journey – like no matter what you try, the scale refuses to budge, or worse, the pounds return even faster? You’re not alone. For millions of Ame...

DATE: Jun 16, 2025 | CATEGORY: Strength in Well-being

Do as I say, not as I do

Dear Action Line, The city installed signs on the Animas River Trail telling users to “walk on the right.” Yet the poster shows two dog owners happily meandering on the left side. I...

DATE: Jun 16, 2025 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Medicaid work requirements a disaster for rural America, extend well beyond health outcomes

As the Senate debates imposing work requirements and potential cuts to Medicaid, rural America stands at the front lines of risk. For millions of rural residents, Medicaid is not just a safe...

DATE: Jun 15, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

One fine day … three generations of Durangoans walking and talking together

I took a walk one fine day recently, looking around, people-watching, enjoying myself, feeling the sun warm on my shoulders. Almost immediately, a young couple crossed my path. She was pregn...

DATE: Jun 15, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

On history: Ignorant or maligned, attempts to rewrite and whitewash history cannot stand

On June 4, we witnessed another brazen example of the sinister and ill-informed attempt by the Trump administration to whitewash and rewrite American history. During a Congressional hearing ...

DATE: Jun 15, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Recipient responds to gift with sharp tongue

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I recently moved out of state. His only living relative, a sister, recently came to visit. She has never been married. She is a retired professional and has a good ...

DATE: Jun 15, 2025 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

New Medicaid program to kick in for kids with disabilities, complex medical needs

Coming July 1, there is a new Medicaid program in Colorado for kids with disabilities and complex health needs. The Children with Complex Health Needs program combines two current programs: ...

DATE: Jun 13, 2025 | CATEGORY: Creating Community

Attention trivia buffs, a ‘hootie of blowfish’ and more animal group names

If you play trivia regularly this will be good information for you. Animals that are gathered together in a group have some very unusual names. Let’s warm up with some well-known common exam...

DATE: Jun 13, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Man can’t brush off silence about treatment

DEAR ABBY: I found out that, behind my back, my best friend has been (secretly) growing hair for the past year. He knows I have been balding for many years. Although I have accepted my folli...

DATE: Jun 13, 2025 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Learn food safety for your summer barbecues

With the days getting longer and the evenings warmer, more and more La Plata County residents are likely headed outside to use their grills or smokers for cooking. While grilling is a great ...

DATE: Jun 11, 2025 | CATEGORY: Creating Community

If not you, then who?

Memorial Day has come and gone, and the San Juan Mountains Association field crews are out in full force. The unofficial start of summer is upon us, and we have already seen an uptick in vis...

DATE: Jun 11, 2025 | CATEGORY: Stewards of the Land

Group Shower driven by music

Band will play Saturday at Nordfest III

DATE: Jun 11, 2025 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

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