Columnists - The Durango Herald

Find social connections to overcome loneliness

When stay-at-home restrictions, physical distancing and masking became important for reducing transmission of COVID-19, we all learned something about loneliness and the importance of our so...

DATE: Nov 20, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Colorado bucks partisanship to deliver Amendment B

By Kent Thiry, Michael Johnston and Joe Zimlich In 2003, Colorado voters were asked to repeal the state’s so-called Gallagher Amendment. Gallagher’s approach to property taxes was...

DATE: Nov 20, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Reducing occupancy won’t reduce virus spread

Just finished reading your article on San Juan Basin Public Health reducing the capacity to 25% occupancy at businesses. I would like the SJBPH to show me proof that the spread o...

DATE: Nov 20, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Our View: Back to school will require sacrifice

This fall, nearly every local student – at Fort Lewis College or in 9-R schools – had an option to learn in person. Nationally, only 19% of districts offered a full in-person opt...

DATE: Nov 19, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Habit pushes friendship to limit

Dear Abby: I have a good friend I’ll call Josie. She’s kind, generous and always willing to help. There is only one problem – she lies. The lies she tells are ridiculous. I f...

DATE: Nov 19, 2020 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Bowregard and the Sidecar Virtual Concert Series

Local bluegrass and roots trio Stillhouse Junkies are lifting the virtual concert to a new level. Taking on the role as concert promoters and producers in addition to performers,...

DATE: Nov 19, 2020 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Letter: Porter-Norton expresses gratitude

Dear Durango Herald editors: I would like to thank the voters for selecting me as the next La Plata County commissioner from District 2. Thank you to the people who voted for me. ...

DATE: Nov 19, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Letters: Grocers should enforce mask mandate

The voters have spoken. They rejected Trump’s dangerous anti-science rhetoric, especially here in Colorado and La Plata County. It’s time now for local grocery stores to enforce the mask man...

DATE: Nov 18, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

8 health and wellness tips for the holidays

The holidays can be a stressful time for many. It’s been shown that stress and anxiety in all areas of life including family, finance, and health and wellness seem to increase dur...

DATE: Nov 18, 2020 | CATEGORY: Strength in Well-being

Cheating confession devastates wife

Dear Abby: Two years ago, my husband of 50 years confessed that 46 years ago, shortly after our son was born, he had a one-night stand with a total stranger he gave a ride to. She offere...

DATE: Nov 17, 2020 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Letters: Calling race for Biden is bogus

I urge you to be very careful about what you print regarding this bogus call of the presidency for Joe Biden. Please remember that the media do not get to choose the outcome of any election ...

DATE: Nov 17, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Our View: America needs a health care czar

Biden should focus on systemic reform

DATE: Nov 17, 2020 | 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