Columnists - The Durango Herald

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

Articulation makes a good fly

Experimenting and finding realistic movements while fly fishing

DATE: Aug 5, 2022 | CATEGORY: Sports

Employee wants out of book club

DEAR ABBY: I have worked for the same company for 20 years. For the last eight years, I was part of an office book club, mostly because I was pressured regularly by the boss to participate. ...

DATE: Aug 4, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Noodle plays Rockin’ on the River Concert Series

College is a great catalyst for band formation. From Devo to Public Enemy, The Commodores to Phish, thousands of bands have formed when pursuit of higher education gave way to pursuit of mus...

DATE: Aug 4, 2022 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Mom troubles son’s girlfriend

DEAR ABBY: I have been with my 45-year-old boyfriend, “Doug,” for six years. His mother, who was widowed five years ago, has moved here to Florida from New Jersey. Doug is very protective of...

DATE: Aug 2, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Action Line takes a peek at peaks and parks

Dear Action Line: What becomes of the scrolls that you sign at the top of 14ers? Say, for instance, that I climbed Longs Peak in 1993 or Handies Peak in 1996. (I think it’s true, give or...

DATE: Aug 1, 2022 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Call 988 for direct access to mental health support

People suffering a mental health crisis have a new resource to seek help. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that the new 988 mental health lifel...

DATE: Jul 30, 2022 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

5 things Frisch must do to beat Boebert

Can Democrat Adam Frisch beat Republican incumbent Lauren Boebert? Up front, I should admit that I am not a Boebert fan. Her rhetoric makes gridlock easy and problem-solving hard. Clearly, I...

DATE: Jul 30, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Single-payer system benefits patients, physicians

U.S. physician organizations are shifting positions toward a single-payer healthcare system to benefit both doctors and patients. The single-payer system is a streamlined financing mechanism...

DATE: Jul 30, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

San Juan Brewfest tickets on sale now

I have been involved with the San Juan Brewfest event since 2008. Over the past 15 years, this event has grown into a major fundraiser for United Way of Southwest Colorado and an event with ...

DATE: Jul 29, 2022 | CATEGORY: What's Up Downtown

Employees sacrifice for dying co-worker

DEAR ABBY: A co-worker has been stricken with multiple stage-4 cancers. We all have been compassionate and caring, supporting him through the challenges of treatment and the side effects. Hi...

DATE: Jul 29, 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