Columnists - The Durango Herald

Ankle sprains hurt, but you can help the healing

It can happen so quickly. One minute you’re double stacking rafts on a trailer for a week of boating. The next minute, you’re on the gravity train. The sound of a twisted ankle popping under...

DATE: Aug 11, 2022 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Join the fun at the La Plata County Fair

Red, White and Moo! Our La Plata County Fair is in full swing. The La Plata County Fairgrounds is brimming with animals, projects and family fun. Swing down and join the excitement. The Exte...

DATE: Aug 10, 2022 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Much to celebrate in passage of climate legislation

Those hoping to preserve a livable world for ourselves, our children and our grandchildren can find much to celebrate in the climate provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act recently passed...

DATE: Aug 10, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Crime will change with different leaders

In early May, my car was stolen from a parking lot. Two hours after I left it outside of a park, it was gone. Far too many Coloradans are familiar with this experience. When the police arriv...

DATE: Aug 10, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Healthier eating for high blood pressure

Do you have high blood pressure or does high blood pressure run in your family? If so, take the next few minutes to read this column and learn the best foods to bring into your diet to help ...

DATE: Aug 9, 2022 | CATEGORY: Healing Nutrition

For the joy of eating

Diet fads, junk food, inflammatory foods, allergies – these are just a few of the topics most associated with food in our modern, health-conscious culture. Restrictions on what we eat (and ...

DATE: Aug 9, 2022 | CATEGORY: Nourishing Morsels

Drunk uncle crosses line with kiss

DEAR ABBY: I come from a large, close family. The majority of them live in another state. A couple of family members live in the same state I reside in. One night, my uncle came over and we ...

DATE: Aug 9, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Dismissal of career no longer a joke

DEAR ABBY: I graduated from college with a degree in a niche field. In my graduating class of nearly 7,000, there were only four of us with this specific degree. I now have a career in the f...

DATE: Aug 9, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

A complex answer for a simple question about metal artwork

Dear Action Line: Is there a proper orientation to view the metal artwork on the new Holiday Inn on Camino del Rio? Driving by, it looks like some very large and messy animal had a very ...

DATE: Aug 8, 2022 | CATEGORY: Action Line

A multitude of experiences await at the county fair

This will be my 16th fair as part of CSU Extension here in La Plata County. I could make a funny comment about “that’s a lot of turkey legs and funnel cake,” but to be honest, I do not think...

DATE: Aug 8, 2022 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Corralling health care costs

Health insurance is something we don’t like to think about until we need it. And then we want it to pay for what we need. Unfortunately, life is a lot more complicated than that. Health insu...

DATE: Aug 5, 2022 | CATEGORY: Local First

SafeCare Colorado: Stronger families and brighter futures

We’ve all heard the saying “it takes a village” to raise a child. This was true before COVID-19 hit, and for most families it holds even more truth today. Parents and caregivers face more ba...

DATE: Aug 5, 2022 | CATEGORY: Creating Community

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