Columnists - The Durango Herald

From goals to habits: How SMART goals can transform your health

The New Year is already in the rearview – are your health goals keeping up? I’ve heard the same thing repeatedly from clients: “I know what to do, but I just don’t do it.” Sound familiar? We...

DATE: Mar 10, 2025 | CATEGORY: Healing Nutrition

We didn’t start the fire – but what happens if someone does?

Dear Action Line: I can hear the wind howling now as I write this. Considering the warm weather we’re having, how is it looking for fire season? While you're at it, can you find out who ...

DATE: Mar 10, 2025 | CATEGORY: Action Line

On Tourism: ‘Locals’ are giving tourists a bad name

Tourism, a pillar of La Plata County’s economy, accounts for about 30% of local revenue, supporting thousands of jobs (6,566 at last count, per Region 9 Economic Development). Visitors injec...

DATE: Mar 9, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

An honor and a privilege to serve my home district and its citizens

It’s been a busy first month in D.C., setting up our office, assisting constituents, hiring staff, attending committee hearings, participating in floor votes, and so much more. I am proud t...

DATE: Mar 9, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

On Tourism: What is the Tourism Commission’s destination?

On March 11, Durango City Council will vote on a proposed “Tourism Commission” ordinance, the purpose of which is to foster the growth of tourism, enhance and expand the tourism industry, an...

DATE: Mar 9, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Halfway marked by bipartisan support, tribal collaboration and recognition

We’re officially halfway through the legislative session. I’m pleased to share my monthly update from the Capitol building. Every session, each legislator has the opportunity to introduce fi...

DATE: Mar 9, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Charles Hakes: Practicing astronomy in the time shift

Greetings, stargazers. Today we can all say a fond farewell to Mountain Standard Time while we spend at least the next few months living in the Central Standard Time zone. Or at least that i...

DATE: Mar 9, 2025 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Gravestone damaged by decoration

DEAR ABBY: We lost our 16-year-old daughter two years ago to leukemia. It’s been a difficult two years. I am writing to ask if there are rules of etiquette for visiting a loved one at the ce...

DATE: Mar 8, 2025 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Mental health struggles take toll

DEAR ABBY: I have been married for 47 years. My wife has suffered from mental illness for more than half our marriage. Two years ago, she went off her medication, became manic for 10 months ...

DATE: Mar 8, 2025 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

A note on history: It can rhyme as well as repeat

History is a funny thing, but we are living in frightening historic times. There are several adages about history, such as “those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.” On...

DATE: Mar 7, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

A rewarding spring

The Durango Business Improvement District encourages you to shop local this April, and you can earn a reward for doing so! BID’s Spring Rewards program is back with more spending levels and ...

DATE: Mar 6, 2025 | CATEGORY: What's Up Downtown

Cuts to Medicaid would affect millions of people

Congress is poised to cut Medicaid. The reasons abound, but most legislators who support the cuts cite reducing federal spending, unwinding the Affordable Care Act, and even some questionabl...

DATE: Mar 5, 2025 | CATEGORY: Creating Community

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