Columnists - The Durango Herald

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

Thrive! Living Wage Coalition announces new home at the Local First

After a brief hiatus because of pandemic complications, La Plata County’s Thrive! Living Wage Coalition is ready to be reintroduced to the community. Now a proud program of Local First, the ...

DATE: Oct 1, 2021 | CATEGORY: Local First

Farmington Hill attempts to record live album

If all goes as planned come late Saturday night, local rock band Farmington Hill will have a live album in the making. If all goes as planned. Those plans that need to go the band’s way in...

DATE: Sep 30, 2021 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Editorial Cartoons

DATE: Sep 29, 2021 | CATEGORY: Editorial Cartoons

Filth threatens end to relationship

DEAR ABBY: I recently got back in touch with an old flame from 12 years ago. We never dated in the past because he was an alcoholic and not in a good place. A month ago, he added me on Snapc...

DATE: Sep 28, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Nimbly navigating the mean streets of Durango

Dear Action Line: Years ago, I was taught the intricacies of motor vehicle movement on American roadways. This education included a strongly worded admonition to not stop in lanes of thr...

DATE: Sep 27, 2021 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Expanding use of vaccines an effective strategy to fight COVID-19

Safe and effective vaccines continue to be our single best defense against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Since the early summer, the delta variant of the virus has been the dom...

DATE: Sep 25, 2021 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

It’s past time for Colorado to tackle the ‘pink tax’

We’re all aware that the role of women has changed in the last centuries, but probably less aware that their biology has also changed. Together, these changes have helped change society. Cur...

DATE: Sep 25, 2021 | CATEGORY: Population Matters

BID fall promotions and events

Durango Business Improvement District has several events and promotions planned for this fall. Come out and join us! The North Main District Rewards Program will start in early October and w...

DATE: Sep 25, 2021 | CATEGORY: What's Up Downtown

Wife ready to end long marriage

DEAR ABBY: When I found out a few months ago that my husband of 24 years had been having affairs with several men, it devastated me. I have gone to counseling to try to deal with the pain a...

DATE: Sep 24, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Family navigates Asperger’s

DEAR ABBY: I’m a minor living at home with my parents and my brother. Everything's pretty stable. Mom works, but she isn’t gone all the time or anything like that. However, I have a lot of ...

DATE: Sep 24, 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