Columnists - The Durango Herald

Tree lovers tussle over targeted cottonwood

Dear Action Line: The city’s plans to build a trail crossing over the Animas River adjacent to 32nd Street sound logical. However, I am concerned about the fate of a magnificent old-grow...

DATE: Aug 23, 2021 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Pay attention to pollinators for your entire gardening season

Sometimes, all it takes for an article idea is a simple inquiry from a gardener. Usually, that starts with the phrase, “What the heck is (enter inquiry here)?” •What is eating all my spinach...

DATE: Aug 22, 2021 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Opportunities abound for engagement on climate change

A friend recently lamented the apparent disappearance of Colorado’s trademark cobalt blue skies, those piercingly clear summer days in the mountains when you can see almost forever. Instead,...

DATE: Aug 21, 2021 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

Fall in love with Durango again

As summer fades away, the nights become cooler, the aspens transform into gold and everything that can will be pumpkin flavored. Fall is sometimes also known as “secret summer.” This nicknam...

DATE: Aug 21, 2021 | CATEGORY: The Tourism Effect

Couple needn’t agree of after-death wishes

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I disagree about our arrangements after we die. I would like to be cremated and scattered at a location with wonderful memories, like where we honeymooned. He ...

DATE: Aug 20, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Former drug user looks for way out of toxic relationship

DEAR ABBY: I’m a 39-year-old woman in a toxic relationship with my boyfriend of almost seven years. We had a child together but lost custody because of drug use during my pregnancy. Even...

DATE: Aug 20, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Everybody’s doing it

PlayFest, Durango’s contribution to developing new American plays, has just concluded. Two similar festivals are scheduled nearby in August. Words Cubed is Utah Shakespeare Festival’s annual...

DATE: Aug 19, 2021 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Side Pony plays at Buckley Park

It’s a songwriting and performance partnership that began in Nashville, Tennessee, through ties in Durango. Insurgent country singer-songwriter Caitlin Cannon has kicked around Durango sinc...

DATE: Aug 19, 2021 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Writers on the Range: Wildfire redux – again

Poor Butte County, California, again on fire, its smoke choking the air of states miles away. Nestled in the Northern Sierras, Butte County is home to Chico State University, Sierra Nevada B...

DATE: Aug 19, 2021 | CATEGORY: Columnists

Cholesterol and foods to enjoy

Does talk about cholesterol, HDL, LDL and triglycerides make your head spin? If so, you’re not alone, even though millions of Americans are dealing with unhealthy cholesterol numbers that pu...

DATE: Aug 18, 2021 | CATEGORY: Healing Nutrition

Wife must seek support for husband’s silent abuse

DEAR ABBY: I have known my husband for eight years. We've been married for four. Abby, my husband rapes me while I'm asleep. I have told him how it makes me feel, because I was molested ...

DATE: Aug 17, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Grandparents ‘mommy’ and ‘daddy’ to toddler

DEAR ABBY: My daughter passed away last year, and we received custody of our grandson, who was 15 months old at the time. He is now nearly 2½ years old. My daughter wanted him to call m...

DATE: Aug 17, 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