Columnists - The Durango Herald

Bret Stephens: How will a post-Trump Republican Party look?

If Donald Trump stages a come-from-behind victory in November, the Republican Party will become an oddity for the Trump Organization: the only entity it owns but does not brand. N...

DATE: Sep 10, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

If you plan to can, use a trusted and tested recipe

I’ll venture to guess there are some newbies to food preservation this year. It would be tough to argue the pandemic did not bring a heightened awareness to our reliance on large-scale food ...

DATE: Sep 9, 2020 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Bret Stephens: The unwitting progressives who bolster Trump

As Donald Trump was about to accept the Republican nomination from the South Lawn of the White House with warnings that “No one will be safe in Biden’s America,” NPR was doing its part to ma...

DATE: Sep 9, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Nightshades and arthritis are often connected

This is the time of year when fresh produce is at its peak. The farmers markets and grocery stores are an abundance of nature’s glory. Fruit is literally falling off the trees. Ho...

DATE: Sep 9, 2020 | CATEGORY: Nourishing Morsels

Attention paid to ex still angers wife

Dear Abby: My wife and I were married 30 years when we ran into an old girlfriend (and ex-fiancee) of mine. I spent a good part of the evening dancing with her and ignoring my wife. My w...

DATE: Sep 8, 2020 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Kirk, Spock dictate county votes

Dear Action Line: A recent letter to the editor wanted to make sure everyone knew they can vote for all county commissioners regardless of which district they live in. Why even have district...

DATE: Sep 7, 2020 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Tips to ripen those finicky tomatoes as autumn approaches

An email came across my desk this past week, and it pretty much exemplified 2020: “The NOAA Climate Prediction Center is forecasting a moderate to high risk of much-below normal temperatures...

DATE: Sep 7, 2020 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Rob Edward: If there’s one thing Colorado needs, it’s ... wolves

Colorado voters will soon have a historic opportunity to overcome a monumental injustice. If voters choose to say Yes to a citizens’ initiative on Nov. 3, wolves will again mingl...

DATE: Sep 6, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Marj Perry: Wolves + lots of people is not a recipe for success

I am a third-generation Colorado rancher, and I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that it’s a terrible idea to vote Nov. 3 to bring back wolves to western Colorado. It threa...

DATE: Sep 5, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

The case for providing a supportive workplace

Researchers have known for several decades that providing a supportive workplace pays dividends. To be more specific, employees form an overall sense of how much their organizatio...

DATE: Sep 5, 2020 | CATEGORY: Local First

What have you learned about yourself during this pandemic?

At one of those BYOB/backyard, socially distanced happy hours, a friend asked the question: “What have you learned about yourself during this pandemic?” I thought it was a brilliant question...

DATE: Sep 4, 2020 | CATEGORY: Authentic Aging

Years apart stretch marriage thin

Dear Abby: I have been married to my husband for 12 years. He retired from the Army before I met him, and I currently serve, stationed overseas. When we first met, I thought ...

DATE: Sep 4, 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