Columnists - The Durango Herald

Durango Public Library Advisory Board accepting nominations

Durango Public Library Advisory Board will accept nominations for the 2021 Library Community Champion Award through June 4. Applications are available at Recognizing that the success of an...

DATE: Apr 16, 2021 | CATEGORY: Community Voices

Trail Crew Brew to launch Thursday

Durango Trails will hold its spring fundraiser and 30th anniversary event from noon to 6 p.m. Thursday at Ska Brewing, 225 Girard St. The Earth Day celebration will include the la...

DATE: Apr 16, 2021 | CATEGORY: Community Voices

Durango Home & Ranch Show to take place

Durango Home & Ranch Show will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 24 and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 25 at La Plata County Fairgrounds, 2500 Main Ave. The show will feature...

DATE: Apr 16, 2021 | CATEGORY: Community Voices

Distance tests strength of engagement

Dear Abby: I’ve been in a long-distance relationship for 2½ years. We are now engaged, but haven’t set a date for our wedding. We are both in the military, and we have mainta...

DATE: Apr 16, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Susan Atkinson: Carbon pricing is key to halting climate change

It’s easy to feel helpless, depressed and overwhelmed about the recent news of climate-related disasters affecting Colorado. Increased temperatures and drought intensify our vulnerability to...

DATE: Apr 16, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Accusations fly after friend gets COVID-19

Dear Abby: A friend of 35 years recently accused me of exposing her and her mother to COVID-19. She told me she thinks I did it on purpose because I thought so little of them. This is no...

DATE: Apr 15, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Terry Rickard, Durango’s jukebox

Local musician Terry Rickard is kind of like Durango’s jukebox. If you’ve bellied up to the bar in any Durango watering holes over the last 25 years, you’ve likely seen Rickard w...

DATE: Apr 15, 2021 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Denise Fort: Water can be wrung out too much

Santa Fe, New Mexico, once was sustained by the waters of the Santa Fe River, which begins in the high country of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, flows through the city and then onward to th...

DATE: Apr 15, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Charles Blow: White supremacists fear “white replacement”

Last week, Fox News host Tucker Carlson caused an uproar by promoting the racist, anti-Semitic, patriarchal and conspiratorial “white replacement theory.” Also known as the “great replacemen...

DATE: Apr 15, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Mother-daughter fight leads to threats

Dear Abby: My best friend (since we were babies) and I are having a disagreement. She had two kids when she was 16 and 17 who are now in their early 20s. One of them still lives rent-fre...

DATE: Apr 13, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Benjamin Bellorado: Bears Ears murals, rock art, textiles deserve protection

For decades, the iconic archaeological sites of the stunning canyon country of Bears Ears in southeastern Utah have captivated the imaginations of visitors from around the world. ...

DATE: Apr 13, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Mark Hillman: How I came to respect centrists

Sticks in the mud. Overly cautious. Obstacles to progress. That’s how I’ve tended to view political moderates – especially those in my own party. As a 30-something sta...

DATE: Apr 13, 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