Columnists - The Durango Herald

Galloway a jack-of-all-trades

After 30-some years in the music business, Benny “Burle” Galloway knows the right and wrong way to do things. The one-time Durango local has kicked around the Colorado jam-grass ...

DATE: Oct 22, 2020 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

David Brooks: Is this the new future of American liberalism?

The United States recently endured its worst economic quarter in recorded history. If this trend had continued for an entire year, American economic output would have been down by...

DATE: Oct 21, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

When does the creep become a problem?

That darn scale – rarely reading how it’s supposed to, right?! Well, I have some good news: It’s normal for your weight to flux up and down. As much as you might like i...

DATE: Oct 21, 2020 | CATEGORY: Strength in Well-being

Animas River’s flows flirt with the all-time low

Dear Action Line: The Animas River flow rate is slowly falling toward the 100 cfs mark. Has it ever fallen below 100, into double digits? – Drying Up Dear Drying: The U.S. Geologi...

DATE: Oct 19, 2020 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Unlawful public lands head invites chaos

A Montana judge recently ruled the head of the Bureau of Land Management had illegally served as the agency’s director for more than a year. That’s a big deal, seeing as it is the...

DATE: Oct 17, 2020 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

Tourism’s economic impact sans extra visitors

2020 has not been the best year for tourism. With stay-at-home orders, quarantines and public officials urging citizens to stay-put, tourism numbers have plummeted across the globe. ...

DATE: Oct 17, 2020 | CATEGORY: The Tourism Effect

Friend fears woman addicted to meth

Dear Abby: The 22-year-old daughter of close friends of ours has been living in a van during the pandemic. Her parents, my husband and I heard her on her cellphone talking about a party ...

DATE: Oct 16, 2020 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Late-night smoking irks neighbors

Dear Abby: My family and I bought a house in a nice, quiet, safe neighborhood three years ago. What we didn’t know before moving in was that our next-door neighbor sometimes smokes cigar...

DATE: Oct 15, 2020 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Aftergrass reunites for a benefit show

It’s safe to say that local rock band Aftergrass never really broke up. Yet since going on an indefinite hiatus about eight years ago, the shows have been few and far between. Th...

DATE: Oct 15, 2020 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

4-H launches new year with many opportunities ahead

October is exciting as it kicks off our new 4-H year! We are working hard on planning new virtual and in-person events for our 4-H members and community members. In November, we ...

DATE: Oct 14, 2020 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Fad diets: Let’s talk about intermittent fasting

As we learned in this three-part series, fad diets are defined as diets that are extremely popular for a short period of time. They often promise quick weight loss or health impro...

DATE: Oct 14, 2020 | CATEGORY: Healing Nutrition

‘Perfect’ guy becomes abusive at home

Dear Abby: I have been with “Dylan” for three years, engaged for two. I have a lot of insecurities about it. We met after my husband’s death. Dylan was the perfect guy at fir...

DATE: Oct 13, 2020 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

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