Columnists - The Durango Herald

Friend runs background check

DEAR ABBY: Even though I have lived in a different state for many years, I’ve remained in touch with a female friend I’ll call “Tina” from high school, mostly by text messaging. For the last...

DATE: Jul 8, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Volunteers make a difference in Chicago Basin

Those of us who cherish the San Juan Mountains are familiar with the term “loved to death.” We’ve seen photos and stories of beautiful places around the world being carelessly degraded by th...

DATE: Jul 8, 2022 | CATEGORY: Stewards of the Land

Read this before taking up hockey

How exciting it was to watch our Colorado Avalanche win the Stanley Cup. They are a team of such beautiful skaters and stick handlers, and the pace they set is hard to match. I have long adm...

DATE: Jul 8, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Family drama intensifies with disappearance

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I have inherited four dogs from relatives. I was out of state for a month (my husband was home) when two of them were dognapped, driven 42 miles away and abandoned ...

DATE: Jul 7, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Garrett Young, band release new record

Guitar player Garrett Young likes his tools. The Bayfield-based musician just dropped his second record, and for that sophomore release he’s gone to two of the best tools in his musical tool...

DATE: Jul 7, 2022 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Preserve your peaches for a taste of summer all year

Every June, there is a window of opportunity. The price of cherries dips while the quality peaks. In this one month, it’s easy to eat a year’s worth of cherries. So easy, I often do. But ala...

DATE: Jul 7, 2022 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Election judge gets insider’s look at primaries

This week I learned how a secure election works by serving as an election judge. Most ballots – more than 98% – arrived by mail or in drop boxes, but voters could vote in person at Voter Ser...

DATE: Jul 6, 2022 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Cleaning up with summer’s bounty

Summertime has always been associated with ease, play, fun and adventure. Living in Southwest Colorado, it’s also connected with abundance and fresh produce. The farmers market and stands ar...

DATE: Jul 5, 2022 | CATEGORY: Nourishing Morsels

A wagonload of music

A snazzy, green-and-white traveling performance wagon will launch Music in the Mountains’ 36th season Thursday. At 11 a.m. in Boyle Park, Mancos, the wagon will unfold and reveal the festiva...

DATE: Jul 5, 2022 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Epiphany opens path to new life

DEAR ABBY: I have been married for two decades to a man who is incapable of connecting with anyone. It didn’t become apparent until after we were married. He is very good at surface relation...

DATE: Jul 5, 2022 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Uncovering La Plata County’s election non-conspiracy

Dear Action Line: Question about voting: I recently changed my affiliation while the spouse retained his already unaffiliated status. I inadvertently checked a box where I only get the R...

DATE: Jul 4, 2022 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Local immigrants, ICE, our collective future converge

“Papeles!” the tall man with baggy eyes and a black Carhartt sweatshirt demanded through a small opening in the glass door. Frightened, the young woman, who I’ll refer to as Diana, rushed ba...

DATE: Jul 4, 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