Columnists - The Durango Herald

Fire marshal, instructor and ranch collaborate to offer fire investigation training

I would like the community to know about an opportunity the Durango Fire Protection District has undertaken. Under the leadership of Fire Marshal Karola Hanks, five members of the Durango Fi...

DATE: Apr 23, 2021 | CATEGORY: Community Voices

Bloomberg Editorial Board: Post-Chauvin, America must think about justice

By the Bloomberg Opinion editorial board The killing of George Floyd marked a turning point in America’s history of racial justice and injustice. It lent new urgency to questions ...

DATE: Apr 23, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Mom feels shunned over playdates

Dear Abby: I am a mom of two boys, 8 and 12. They both have best friends whose moms I like and I would like to be friends with. My problem is, when we set up a playdate for the boys or m...

DATE: Apr 22, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Tyler Grant Supergroup hits Tico Time Bluegrass Festival

The loose, bluegrass festival campground jam was a major contributor to guitar player Tyler Grant’s musical education. It’s a common festival occurrence: Go to any festival, spen...

DATE: Apr 22, 2021 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Trennie Burch Collins: ‘The Chief’ caricature hurts Indigenous people

It’s funny to think that in 2021 Indigenous people are still having to explain themselves and why images that are supposed to portray them are racist and hurtful. I humbly come be...

DATE: Apr 22, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Jeff Kass: Columbine reporter connects the dots between mass shootings

I was one of the first reporters on scene at the Columbine shootings on April 20, 1999. And I covered it continuously, as a local newspaper reporter and eventually as a book author, for 10 y...

DATE: Apr 22, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

How and why to keep elimination diets simple

Many of us wonder which foods are best for our bodies or could be contributing to symptoms that we’re having. The best way to go is directly to your body – it has all the answers you’re look...

DATE: Apr 21, 2021 | CATEGORY: Nourishing Morsels

Jack Turner: Both political parties practice voter suppression

There is great media focus on the Republican-dominated legislatures determined to unfairly reduce, restrict or eliminate likely Democratic Party voters – just look at the Major League Baseba...

DATE: Apr 21, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Man wants to quit trying for more kids

Dear Abby: My husband and I have had a total of six miscarriages – one before our miracle son and five since we began trying for a second child more than two years ago. I alw...

DATE: Apr 20, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Soleil Gaylord: CPW Commission needs balance

Under Colorado law, one of the 11 voting members on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission must be a member of a nonprofit organization that promotes the “conservation and enhancement of...

DATE: Apr 20, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Rotary Park ‘upgrade’ and a new jungle gym?

Dear Action Line: What is up with the Rotary Park “upgrade”? It appears the parking lot was redesigned to hold FEWER and smaller vehicles than it used to. The new curved walkways probabl...

DATE: Apr 19, 2021 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Nicholas Kristof: Oregon loggers, environmentalists collaborate

JOHN DAY, Ore. — One of the most venomous battles in our polarized nation is the one that has unfolded between loggers and environmentalists in timber towns like John Day, in the snow-capped...

DATE: Apr 17, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

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