Columnists - The Durango Herald

Political signs of the past, present and future

Dear Action Line: What’s up with all the political signs still posted around the county? Do these people not know that the 2020 election is over? – The Longest Year Dear Longest: Apolog...

DATE: Jul 31, 2021 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Downtown Ambassadors and a San Juan Brewfest update

Durango Business Improvement District started its Downtown Ambassador Program in summer 2016. Over the past six years, the program has become an integral part of BID’s work for downtown busi...

DATE: Jul 30, 2021 | CATEGORY: What's Up Downtown

Grandma’s responsibilities begin to pile up

DEAR ABBY: My daughter is pregnant with her second child. Her first, my granddaughter, is 2, and the light of my life. I lovingly offered to take care of her when it’s time for my daught...

DATE: Jul 30, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Music festival celebrates Elton John

Everyone knows Elton John. He remains one of the most identifiable people both visually and auditorily in popular culture, a man behind some of the now most iconic songs in rock ’n’ roll an...

DATE: Jul 29, 2021 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Simple but powerful: How to shop for healthful food

What’s easier, pulling a train uphill or navigating the aisles of a grocery store to find food that’s not only delicious but healthful? Many might take their chances with the train because a...

DATE: Jul 28, 2021 | CATEGORY: Healing Nutrition

Husband’s pantyhose fixation bothers wife

DEAR ABBY: I’m having difficulty understanding my husband’s obsession with pantyhose. When we met 10 years ago, he explained to me during a phone conversation that he liked wearing panty...

DATE: Jul 27, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Trying to love your new parking meters

Dear Action Line: Yesterday, we passed two poor-old tourist couples bent over, squinting at their parking meters trying to figure out how they work. In the past, we had tried numerous ti...

DATE: Jul 26, 2021 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Rommates get snippy of canine care

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I are newlyweds and share an apartment with another couple because we ran into financial difficulties, and this was our only option. The problem is the other co...

DATE: Jul 24, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Real world conditions prove COVID-19 vaccines’ effectiveness

COVID-19 vaccines have changed the landscape of the pandemic. For the tens of millions of Americans who have been fully vaccinated, the risk of disease and especially the risk of severe dis...

DATE: Jul 24, 2021 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Myth-busting Durango’s tourism industry

In the era of fake news and conspiracy theories running amok, Durango’s tourism industry is not immune to myths, rumors and misinformation. The dissenters of the increase to the lodgers tax ...

DATE: Jul 24, 2021 | CATEGORY: The Tourism Effect

Caring for community’s animals a burden and blessing

As I write, I’m heartbroken about the loss of a friend. He was not lost to age or illness, but to unpredictable behavior. I knew this guy was a longshot, but he burrowed his way into my hea...

DATE: Jul 23, 2021 | CATEGORY: From the Humane Society

Sister’s proselytizing impacts man’s social life

DEAR ABBY: I have a much older sister who has become very religious. Most of her life decisions are based on her faith, so conversations tend to develop into faith-oriented topics and ju...

DATE: Jul 23, 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