Columnists - The Durango Herald

Thomas Friedman: Dear Joe, Iran is not about the nukes anymore

With the assassination by Israel of Iran’s top nuclear warhead designer, the Middle East is promising to complicate Joe Biden’s job from Day One. President-elect Biden knows the region well,...

DATE: Dec 4, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Tension makes holiday outlook bleak

Dear Abby: I woke up crying this morning. The holidays are fast approaching, and many of them I spent with my younger sister “Leyla” and her family. It has been a tradition because our p...

DATE: Dec 3, 2020 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

(DJ)-Calvin lays down funky beats

Local musician Jesse Ogle’s new project, (DJ)-Calvin, finds the musician stepping into new roles. Known locally and regionally as the bass player in J Calvin and Hello Dollface, ...

DATE: Dec 3, 2020 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Caring for your ‘winter organs,’ aka the kidneys

December marks the official beginning of winter – the season that beckons us to come inside, slow down, and rest more. When traditional Chinese medicine was first developed, it wa...

DATE: Dec 2, 2020 | CATEGORY: Nourishing Morsels

Trust issues are remnants of past

Dear Abby: Marriage is considered to be imperative in my religion and culture. I’m 29 and still not married. I have commitment and trust issues with guys. I have been in only three relat...

DATE: Dec 1, 2020 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Bayfield schools’ COVID policies are unsafe

Bayfield School District Superintendent Kevin Aten and I agree that teachers believe kids learn best in person. However, what was missing from Aten’s recent Bayfield School Distri...

DATE: Dec 1, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Critters occupy Smelter Mountain 1BR/1BA

Dear Action Line: I was walking along the Animas River Trail by Smelter Rapids the other day and looked up to see what looks like an old adobe building with a door and windows on the hil...

DATE: Nov 30, 2020 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Paul Krugman: Let’s hear it for Janet Yellen

It’s hard to overstate the enthusiasm among economists over Joe Biden’s selection of Janet Yellen as the next secretary of the Treasury. Some of this enthusiasm reflects the groundbreaking n...

DATE: Nov 29, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Maureen Dowd: The Lady and the Trump

I’ve been riveted all week by the spectacle of the most famous blond phenom on the planet, a child isolated and miserable living inside a national landmark, lashing out and spiraling into se...

DATE: Nov 28, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Daniel Morgenstern: Housing issues must become top priority

Thanksgiving and the holidays are wonderful if you are sheltered, warm and fed. The holidays also provide a strong reminder for those of us who are comfortable that we have an obligation to ...

DATE: Nov 28, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Maureen Dowd: The L:ady and the Trump

I’ve been riveted all week by the spectacle of the most famous blond phenom on the planet, a child isolated and miserable living inside a national landmark, lashing out and spiraling into se...

DATE: Nov 28, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Local First is the voice of the local business community

Now, more than ever, supporting local, independent business is critical to bolstering our economy. Local First is proud to be working with La Plata County through their Cares Act ...

DATE: Nov 28, 2020 | CATEGORY: Local First

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