Columnists - The Durango Herald

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

Recognize, then challenge, thinking traps to lead a more joyful life

A colleague once shared with me the observation that much of the health-related suffering humans experience originates between the ears. A complete understanding of the various fa...

DATE: Feb 23, 2020 | CATEGORY: La Plata Health Watch

Centura backs out of Southwest Health Alliance

In response to the growing support of the Southwest Health Alliance, a community-based health insurance cooperative in affiliation with the Peak Health Alliance, Centura Health announced tod...

DATE: Feb 22, 2020 | CATEGORY: Local First

Farhad Manjoo: Is Amazon’s store just too good to be broken up?

Amazon is a genie of consumerist wishes, and it keeps growing more irresistible. The company’s online store has always been convenient and plentiful, but in the last year, Amazon ...

DATE: Feb 22, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Why travelers don’t value their time – and what it means for your next vacation

How valuable is your vacation time? That can be a difficult question to answer, even for someone like Mike Golpa, a busy dentist from Las Vegas. “I have taken longer flights and e...

DATE: Feb 22, 2020 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

Woman is trapped by guilt in friendship

Dear Abby: Years ago, I was friendly with a man from work who was very close to his mom. She came along with us once for lunch and ended up really liking me. From that point on, whenever...

DATE: Feb 21, 2020 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Ross Douthat: The Bloomberg temptation – and the peril

For a long time, the notion of a Michael Bloomberg presidential candidacy seemed like a Manhattan fancy, a conceit with elite appeal but no mass constituency, a fantasy for Acela riders who ...

DATE: Feb 21, 2020 | CATEGORY: Ross Douthat

David Brooks: It was education that made Scandinavia great

Almost everybody admires the Nordic model. Countries like Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland have high economic productivity, high social equality, high social trust and high levels of pers...

DATE: Feb 21, 2020 | CATEGORY: David Brooks

Che Apalache: Argentina’s only bluegrass band?

Argentina is about 5,200 miles away from North Carolina. A considerable distance that could prohibit any kind of cultural influence from making its way from North to South America, but this ...

DATE: Feb 20, 2020 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Man hopes to move affair forward

Dear Abby: I have been communicating with this woman I work with. She is currently seeing a guy she’s been with for about four years. We have a clear connection and primal attraction and...

DATE: Feb 18, 2020 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Barbara McLachlan: Priming state Outdoor Rec office to do even more

A group of legislators toured the Winter Colorado Outdoor Recreation Convention in Denver last week, where companies from around the world touted their incredible selection of outdoor equipm...

DATE: Feb 17, 2020 | CATEGORY: From the State House

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