Columnists - The Durango Herald

Kathleen Curry: For Colorado, Biden must shun the Green New Deal

Former Vice President Joe Biden has a strong chance of becoming our next U.S. president. Many people who, like me, are disaffected by Donald Trump’s leadership style and ego are eager for an...

DATE: Sep 26, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Improving our bump-outs for downtown

The Bump Outs for Businesses program proved to be extremely successful this past summer downtown. Surveys of current users indicate that the new space is supporting 20% of total s...

DATE: Sep 26, 2020 | CATEGORY: What's Up Downtown

Wife resents man’s constant demands

Dear Abby: I feel uncomfortable receiving gifts, and I find it hard to meet my husband’s requests for constant gifts, especially when I feel I already give so much. He constantly asks me...

DATE: Sep 25, 2020 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Find a new friend: October is Adopt a Shelter Dog Month

By Chris Nelson La Plata County Humane Society Next month is an important month for all of us here at La Plata County Humane Society. You see, October is Adopt a Shelte...

DATE: Sep 25, 2020 | CATEGORY: From the Humane Society

Thom Rader’s new album a varied palette

Many professional musicians have traveled the same musical path to get to their current place. It’s a well-worn trail that for some began with a forced lesson, in most cases pian...

DATE: Sep 24, 2020 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Warring kids ruining relationship

Dear Abby: I got married to a wonderful guy 14 years ago, but after a year of marriage, our children (his 10-year-old and my 12- and 13-year-olds) couldn’t stand one another and caused a...

DATE: Sep 24, 2020 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Jennifer Senior: The Ginsburg-Scalia routine was not a farce

For the second time in five years, a sitting Supreme Court justice has died, and for the second time in five years, Sen. Mitch McConnell has befouled the process to replace that justice with...

DATE: Sep 23, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Transgender playmate poses challenge

Dear Abby: My 7-year-old granddaughter, “Leyla,” has a playmate who is a transgender girl. My fear is that she may find out the truth and feel betrayed by her playmate as well as me. Sho...

DATE: Sep 22, 2020 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Bret Stephens: An open letter to Mitt Romney, about the Supreme Court

Dear Sen. Romney, It isn’t hard to guess what you’re hearing from most of your fellow Republicans as they try to persuade you to cast a vote for President Donald Trump’s Supreme C...

DATE: Sep 22, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Monsters limit access to Animas River

Dear Action Line: With the new Animas River Trail extension to Oxbow Park, can I access the river south or east of the 36th and Silverton streets intersection? There are “No River Access” si...

DATE: Sep 21, 2020 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Will wolves join lynx as recovered species in Colorado?

Twenty years ago, Colorado wildlife officials restored long-missing lynx to the state’s forests and mountains. It was a joy to watch lynx bound away from their release point at Rio Grande Re...

DATE: Sep 19, 2020 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

Why join Visit Durango’s Board of Directors?

Visit Durango is currently accepting applications for our Board of Directors from now through October 31, 2020. The Visit Durango Board of Directors is organized by sector to ensu...

DATE: Sep 19, 2020 | CATEGORY: The Tourism Effect

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