Columnists - The Durango Herald

Keys employers can use to make a positive workplace

October is a busy month for awareness. In October, we are asked to honor everything from the whimsical (Bat Appreciation and National Cookie Month) to such serious topics as Breast Cancer Aw...

DATE: Oct 8, 2021 | CATEGORY: Creating Community

Conservative Supreme Court justices are asking us to stop calling them partisan hacks

You may have noticed that an unusual number of Supreme Court justices have taken to publicly defending themselves – my favorite is Amy Coney Barrett’s we’re-not-partisan-hacks defense – as c...

DATE: Oct 8, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Adam Swanson and pop culture of the past

Adam Swanson still only digs on pop culture of the past. The young pianist, who has been playing ragtime piano in the Diamond Belle Saloon since he was a teenager, has little interest in a...

DATE: Oct 7, 2021 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Supporting wilderness and the immense value it provides

In his wildly popular 1968 book, Desert Solitaire, Ed Abbey claimed that “we need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to go there...

DATE: Oct 7, 2021 | CATEGORY: Stewards of the Land

Fall whispers words of wisdom: It’s time to winterize

Seasonal change is displaying its very best. The beauty of golden leafed aspens, flame red maples, the resilient green of evergreens, crisp blue sky and the surrounding peaks dusted in whit...

DATE: Oct 7, 2021 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Shifting with the seasons

This morning felt like the first true day of autumn – the air was cold and crisp, more layers required to walk the dogs, and the body wants warmer foods for breakfast. This shift of season ...

DATE: Oct 6, 2021 | CATEGORY: Nourishing Morsels

Raising a child takes a village. Let SafeCare help

Parenting is not an easy job. It doesn’t come with a manual or course, and it’s one of the most important roles we play in our lives. It is rewarding, but let’s face it, parenting can also b...

DATE: Oct 5, 2021 | CATEGORY: Creating Community

Action Line’s advice for hikers and mountain bikers: When you see the other, give ’em the stink eye

Dear Action Line: While riding my mountain bike in the region, I have encountered more trail users than normal. I always slow or stop to offer a friendly greeting. Mountain bikers typica...

DATE: Oct 4, 2021 | CATEGORY: Action Line

The changing colors that define autumn’s beauty

In moments of laziness, I can be prone to the “scroll.” The feeds are primarily populated with stories and photos containing baseball, plants, friends’ kids or camping trucks/vans I could ne...

DATE: Oct 4, 2021 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Finding balance in this late summer and autumn of our lives

Ah ... summer! Fall is here, and it’s a time of gathering in our energy, harvesting the garden and planning for winter. School has started (and will hopefully continue), organizations and g...

DATE: Oct 2, 2021 | CATEGORY: Authentic Aging

Woman shocked by finance’s intolerance

DEAR ABBY: About a year ago, my fiance of six years revealed that he doesn’t think homosexuality is normal or right. I was shocked because he had never mentioned it before, nor did I see any...

DATE: Oct 1, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Grandmother cut off after critiquing love triangle

DEAR ABBY: My daughter “Faith” has started dating “Kane,” a new guy she met online. He seems like a stand-up guy. Her old boyfriend, “Blake,” was out of the picture, but since she’s started ...

DATE: Oct 1, 2021 | 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