Columnists - The Durango Herald

New hire wrecked neighbor’s car

Dear Abby: Last year, my across-the-street neighbor backed into my car. At least, that’s what I think happened. My car was parked legally on the street, and there was a huge ...

DATE: Mar 26, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Farhad Manjoo: How Berkeley overcame NIMBYs

A century ago, the civic leaders of Berkeley, California, pioneered what would become one of America’s most enduring systems of racial inequity – a soft apartheid of zoning. In 19...

DATE: Mar 26, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Letter: Lodgers tax proposal serves business, not people

Monday night’s City Council candidate forum was revealing, as my views of candidates changed and firmed up for whom I will vote. The last answer made a difference when candidates...

DATE: Mar 26, 2021 | CATEGORY: Letter from Korla

Dana Ariel branching out musically

Local musician Dana Ariel grew up a festival kid. Carted up to Reservoir Hill in Pagosa Springs by her parents for the bluegrass, roots and folk festivals that bookend the summer...

DATE: Mar 25, 2021 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Fortunes change for homeless woman

Dear Abby: I used to be a successful working woman until I lost my husband of 30 years. After I became homeless, I met “Tom.” We’ve been good friends for the last five years, hanging out...

DATE: Mar 25, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Mike Littwin: We’re no longer surprised at mass murders

Maybe what angers me most about the We can be shocked, yes, because this one happened someplace that we know. We can be heartbroken, surely, that 10 people who should be alive today were s...

DATE: Mar 25, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Writers on the Range: We can act now to fight wildfires

For the 2021 fire season, the writing is on the wall. The West, despite a few days of intense winter, is far drier than it was leading up to last year’s record-breaking fires. ...

DATE: Mar 25, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Time for whole-body spring cleaning

We’re starting to get our first tastes of spring, and it is such a balm for body, mind and soul. It can also bring allergies, irritability (spring fever) and a desire to deep cle...

DATE: Mar 24, 2021 | CATEGORY: Nourishing Morsels

Teen swears stepmom to secrecy

Dear Abby: My 17-year-old stepdaughter, “Amelia,” recently became sexually active. She’s in a “serious” relationship with the boy she had sex with. They have been together for six months...

DATE: Mar 23, 2021 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Tori Ossola: Don’t take out COVID-19 anger on hospitality workers

Please don’t take out your COVID-19 anger on the very person who’s trying to make your evening or your vacation a great experience. On my job as general manager of a downtown Dur...

DATE: Mar 23, 2021 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Howdy, Pardner! Now get that couch off your lawn

Dear Action Line: The other day I received a “ticket” from the city for having a couch with a “free” sign on the lawn. I was tickled by the bold letters at the bottom: “COURTESY NOTICE O...

DATE: Mar 22, 2021 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Gold King legacy leads to stronger water protections

Colorado is currently considering ways to strengthen rules for protecting water from future hardrock mining operations. It’s a direct link back to the Gold King Mine spill in 2015, though on...

DATE: Mar 20, 2021 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

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