Columnists - The Durango Herald

Couple’s love story has lasted 55 years

Dear Abby: I met my lady on a blind date many years ago. When I knocked on the door, it opened and this beautiful girl was standing there. Thinking I could never be so lucky, I asked, “I...

DATE: Feb 13, 2020 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Sticks -N- Thorns a musical friendship

It’s a friendship and musical partnership that goes 20 years. Guitar player Jon Stickley and banjo player Andy Thorn’s friendship and subsequent musical relationship began in a N...

DATE: Feb 13, 2020 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Legislation ensures lasting conservation

Last week, the Bureau of Land Management finalized plans to open millions of acres of southern Utah to energy development, oil and gas drilling, coal mining and a variety of other extraction...

DATE: Feb 12, 2020 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

Mom fears drama will lead to trouble

Dear Abby: I’ve got a new one for you. My beautiful 16-year-old daughter was interested in a boy her age from school. He was interested in her, too. He told her he wanted to date her, bu...

DATE: Feb 12, 2020 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

David Brooks: How Donald Trump will win again in November

As several people have noticed, this was the most politically successful week of the Trump presidency. First, President Donald Trump’s job approval numbers are rising. When the im...

DATE: Feb 12, 2020 | CATEGORY: David Brooks

How many carbs should we be eating?

There is so much talk about them, so much controversy over these little things most of us love so much – the ever-popular carbohydrate. Some diets suggest eliminating them all, wh...

DATE: Feb 12, 2020 | CATEGORY: Strength in Well-being

Credit card benefits for travelers are vanishing – what can you do?

Don’t look now, but banks and their airline partners are slowly and quietly removing credit card benefits that travelers rely on. If you’re planning a trip soon, you might want to read your ...

DATE: Feb 10, 2020 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

It’s up to the locals to create Follies humor

It was yet another snowless year for Snowdown, but that unfortunate situation paled in comparison to this year’s Snowdown Follies. What? No local humor? In a year of budget scandals, a city ...

DATE: Feb 10, 2020 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Despite increased knowledge, myths about autism continue

Pop quiz: What causes autism? Is it: A) a cold, unfeeling mother; B) childhood immunizations; C) genes; or D) an overexposure to the TV show “Spongebob Squarepants” during develop...

DATE: Feb 8, 2020 | CATEGORY: Creating Community

Kara Chadwick: Land exchange would acquire critical elk and deer habitat

In November, the San Juan National Forest looked to the public for feedback regarding a proposed land exchange on the Pagosa Ranger District. Land exchanges are a way to acquire l...

DATE: Feb 8, 2020 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Coopetition is a movement, not a buzz word

The days of siloed community organizations and calloused competition are over. The 2020s are the decade of coopetition. According to Oxford, coopetition is defined as “collaborat...

DATE: Feb 8, 2020 | CATEGORY: The Tourism Effect

A failed attempt to remove the Southern Utes to San Juan County, Utah

Whenever I hike in Bears Ears National Monument, I think about how it almost became an Native American reservation. Over a century ago, Durango businessmen actively campaigned to...

DATE: Feb 8, 2020 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

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