Columnists - The Durango Herald

All aboard the Blues Train with Brody Buster

A train car on the Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge line is the perfect size for a performing one-man band tucked into either end of the car. Roughly about 102 inches or 8.5 feet wide, a sin...

DATE: May 28, 2025 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Boyfriend lets sleeping dogs lie

DEAR ABBY: I am recently divorced after a 37-year marriage. My boyfriend, “Grant,” has been divorced for a long time. He is a lovely man – honest, intelligent, healthy, helpful, neat and a g...

DATE: May 28, 2025 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Lehigh County’s ethical investment, a model for local governments nationwide

When public officials steward our tax dollars, they must uphold both financial responsibility and the values of the community they serve. Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, took that obligation se...

DATE: May 28, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Digital clock operates on Durango Time

Dear Action Line, Can something be done about the digital clock in front of Walk-In Chiropractic? Why is it always running eight to 10 minutes fast? Signed, Tardy Dear Tardy, Has a...

DATE: May 26, 2025 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Daughters have clearly sided with ex

DEAR ABBY: I’ve been divorced for 10 years and have since remarried. I began dating my current wife nine years ago. I have four daughters, ages 24 to 37. Since the divorce, our relationships...

DATE: May 25, 2025 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

The president should know that censoring and whitewashing history never works

In March, President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” To my knowledge no historians were consulted on this sweeping attempt to r...

DATE: May 25, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Animas Valley Land Use Plan wrongs residents, denies protections afforded the rest of the county

To develop a commercial property in La Plata County, a Land Use permit is required to obtain a building permit. The La Plata Land Use Code defines all land uses other than residential as req...

DATE: May 25, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Greed will become our downfall and harm the most vulnerable among us

As a young man, I often wondered at the fact that so many people idolized the wealthy. I still do. I grew up at a time when many of my family and friends worked for large corporations such a...

DATE: May 25, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Love for alcohol leaves little room for friendship

DEAR ABBY: I have known “Sheila” for 30 years. We were once dear friends. She was always a social drinker. Twelve years ago, she lost her husband to cancer and began drinking increasingly he...

DATE: May 23, 2025 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

House GOP reconciliation bill sacrifices Western resources, values and way of life

Healthy wildlife habitat, clean air and water, strong rural economies, and fiscal responsibility by our government. Who can argue about these things? Not me, and not most Americans. In fact,...

DATE: May 23, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Local First, AI Institute at Fort Lewis College collaborate to streamline Be Local Coupon Book production

Local First has long been a champion of supporting locally owned, independent businesses to strengthen the local economy. One of its signature initiatives, the Be Local Coupon Book, has been...

DATE: May 21, 2025 | CATEGORY: Local First

Mojo Birds’ music a mix of genres

The genre that is “Afro-Peruvian-Mojo” is not household term when it comes to music terms. It does, however, remain an apt descriptor for local band Mojo Birds. Part indie-pop and soul band,...

DATE: May 21, 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