Columnists - The Durango Herald

Barbara McLachlan: Coloradans ask state to spend more on education

More than ever, I am hearing about the struggles with Colorado’s school funding formula. Educators want a livable wage, administrators want more safety precautions and students want smaller ...

DATE: Mar 1, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Transition, evolution and the chamber Tech Series

What’s that adage ... “Nothing is so certain as change?” We’re all getting older, and the good news is that it’s better than the alternative. However, the world and perspectives o...

DATE: Feb 29, 2020 | CATEGORY: From the Chamber

Liane Jollon: SNAP is a winning program for all Coloradoans

As local providers of public health and human services, we believe all Coloradans deserve equal opportunity to eat enough food to stay healthy and to prosper. The Colorado Health ...

DATE: Feb 29, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Strategies for vegans to eat well on their next vacation

If you’re an omnivore who thinks good food is hard to find on vacation, try traveling while vegan. Plant-based diets are growing in popularity, but most tourist destinations still...

DATE: Feb 28, 2020 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

Durango Public Library excited for the changes ahead

Durango Public Library is going through some major transitions. One of our top priorities is our strategic plan update. We will be releasing a survey on March 4 on the city’s vir...

DATE: Feb 28, 2020 | CATEGORY: Shelf Life

It’s all in a day’s work at Humane Society – times 10

By Chris Nelson La Plata County Humane Society “Cats and dogs living together, MASS HYSTERIA!” is a line from the movie “Ghostbusters” and is delivered with great comed...

DATE: Feb 28, 2020 | CATEGORY: From the Humane Society

Daughter happily ghosts family

Dear Abby: I’m in my mid-30s, and about a year ago, I went from limited contact to no contact with two siblings and my mother. No single incident caused this, nor was there any history o...

DATE: Feb 28, 2020 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

David Marston: Sad Colorado city fights back – with windmills

For nearly half a century, coal powered the blast furnaces of the 1,410-megawatt Comanche Power Generating station in Pueblo, the city of 110,000 in southern Colorado. You can’t miss Comanch...

DATE: Feb 28, 2020 | CATEGORY: Writers on the Range

Six Dollar String Band goes vinyl

The Six Dollar String Band continues to display a punk-band aesthetic in their old-time world. It’s an aesthetic that if most bands practiced, would result in a more honest music business ar...

DATE: Feb 27, 2020 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

David Brooks: Why Bernie Sanders will probably win the nomination

Successful presidential candidates are myth-makers. They don’t just tell a story. They tell a story that helps people make meaning out of the current moment; that divides people into heroes ...

DATE: Feb 27, 2020 | CATEGORY: David Brooks

Husband unsettled by attraction to man

Dear Abby: I am a 57-year-old married man. I share a house with my wife and daughter. After dinner last month, my wife and I had a big fight. I can’t believe the things we said. In 30 ye...

DATE: Feb 25, 2020 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Older stoppers are non-starters in rec center showers

What’s with the Durango rec center shower control knobs? They keep changing directions. One day, you turn the handle to the left for hot water. The next day, it’s to the right. Also, it vari...

DATE: Feb 24, 2020 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Photos: Durango High School boys golf competes at stateDemons finished 14th after two rounds at Fox Hill Club in Longmont

Demons finished 14th after two rounds at Fox Hill Club in Longmont

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