Columnists - The Durango Herald

Relationship ends when wife returns

Dear Abby: I’ve been dating a married man for the last three years, and everything was great. We were attached at the hip and inseparable. I thought we had something special going. ...

DATE: Apr 27, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Writers on the Range: Pumping up fear on the Colorado River

Some Colorado River tribulations today remind me of a folk story: A young man went to visit his fiancé and found the family trembling and weeping. They pointed to the ceiling, where an axe w...

DATE: Apr 27, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Editorial cartoons

DATE: Apr 27, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Kayla Shaggy: Take down the Toh-Atin ‘Chief’

My name is Kayla Shaggy, and I am a Diné and Annishinabe artist currently living in Arizona. I used to live in Durango. I’m known for my work in art and comics, specifically, “The Sixth Worl...

DATE: Apr 27, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Paul Krugman: Getting real about coal and climate

“Change is coming, whether we seek it or not.” So declares a remarkable document titled “Preserving Coal Country,” released Monday by the United Mine Workers of America, in which the union —...

DATE: Apr 27, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Writers on the Range: The Western state rush to suppress voting

Colorado’s elections are a bipartisan success story, so when Major League Baseball responded to Georgia’s new voting restrictions by moving the All-Star Game to Denver, it couldn’t have made...

DATE: Apr 27, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Action Line speaks truth to power bill

Dear Action Line: I just received my first billing for electricity, as a new homeowner in the Durango area. La Plata Electric Association stated my “Average Daily Cost” was $1.88. This s...

DATE: Apr 26, 2021 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Gail Collins: A spring politics quiz good for a few laughs

Spring is here, folks! I know things aren’t really normal yet. But they seem to be coming around. Picnics! Movies! Sooner or later we’ll all actually be going to work at … work. And before y...

DATE: Apr 26, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Ron Dickson: Bipartisan support is needed for climate change to work

The first Earth Day — April 22, 1970 — marked the beginning of the modern environmental movement. Its history is instructive in that this day grew out of bipartisan support. Earthday.org rep...

DATE: Apr 26, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Feeling pandemic fatigue? The end is in sight, stay the course

These days one of the most common questions I get asked is about how and when the COVID-19 pandemic will end. More than a year into the declared public health emergency, so-calle...

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

Jan and Greg Phillips: Medicare for All, Version 2021

U.S. Representatives Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., recently reintroduced H.R. 1976, their improved Medicare For All Act of 2021 (M4A) in the House of Representatives...

DATE: Apr 25, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Leadership comes in many forms

Challenging times call for creativity, and they certainly call for leadership. If nothing else, Durango and its residents are known for the adage, when times get tough, the tough get going. ...

DATE: Apr 24, 2021 | CATEGORY: From the Chamber

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

Photos: Ride with the Champions bike parade

Photos: Changing colors

Photos: Fort Lewis College Volleyball sweeps Black Hills StateSkyhawks off to best start since 2006

Skyhawks off to best start since 2006

Photos: Durango High School football takes on Piedra Vista High SchoolDemons’ defense dominates in 17-0 victory on Friday night

Demons’ defense dominates in 17-0 victory on Friday night

Skyhawks beat Lubbock Christian 2-1 in season opener on Thursday

Photos: Four Corners Motorcycle RallyLots of motorcycles and tattoos were on display on Saturday

Lots of motorcycles and tattoos were on display on Saturday

Photos: Four Corners Motorcycle Rally Rodeo