Columnists - The Durango Herald

How to get more from your local tourism office

If you are like most of us, you have friends and relatives visiting this summer. Who doesn’t want to visit Durango? We know these visits take a lot of planning and effort on your part, so fi...

DATE: May 4, 2019 | CATEGORY: The Tourism Effect

Connection to former in-laws fades

Dear Abby: I was married to my first husband for 13 years and was very close to his family. His parents and sister were like my own. We ended up divorcing, and it was an extremely painfu...

DATE: May 3, 2019 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Steps to take before wildfire season heats up

By Wildfire Adapted Partnership staff After the last few years left Southwest Colorado with exceptional drought conditions, winter 2019 brought welcome relief. As the...

DATE: May 3, 2019 | CATEGORY: Stewards of the Land

San Juan Basin Public Health adds SafeCare Colorado Program

There is often a gap between what we imagine about parenting and the reality of it. It can be stressful and challenging even for the strongest of heart, as most parents would agree. ...

DATE: May 3, 2019 | CATEGORY: Creating Community

Solutions for high water

For some time, those of us that fly fish have been hoping for wetter falls, winters and springs. If you haven’t noticed, we finally got our wish. It is now May, and the ski area ...

DATE: May 3, 2019 | CATEGORY: Flies & Lies

Son gone but leaving clothes behind

Dear Abby: My husband and I are seniors who look forward to visits from our adult children. The problem is our oldest son. He visits every few months and leaves belongings behind. He use...

DATE: May 3, 2019 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

P.J. Moon right at home in Durango

Local musician P.J. Moon has good things to say about Durango’s music scene. It’s the reason he moved here and arguably the reason he stays here. The well runs pretty deep when i...

DATE: May 2, 2019 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

A despicable cartoon in The New York Times

Anti-Semitism can sometimes be hard to pin down, but last Thursday, the opinion pages of The New York Times international edition provided a textbook illustration of it. Except th...

DATE: May 2, 2019 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Candidates ignore cost of an aging population

WASHINGTON – Just for the record, we ought to note that trustees for Social Security and Medicare recently released their annual reports. The two programs alone constituted 45 pe...

DATE: May 1, 2019 | CATEGORY: Robert Samuelson

The next best thing to detox

Spring is here, and it’s a great time to “spring clean” your body. However, not all bodies can handle a detox. If you’re eating a standard American diet filled with sugar and pr...

DATE: May 1, 2019 | CATEGORY: Healing Nutrition

Gay wife resolves to end her marriage

Dear Abby: I’m married to a man 21 years my senior. “Joe” and I have been married six years. I have recently realized I’m gay and have fallen in love with another woman. Alth...

DATE: May 1, 2019 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Have a voice in our economy

The late Joel Jones, whom I had the privilege to serve under after he was president of Fort Lewis College, was big on “leadership.” That’s actually an understatement. He was probably one of ...

DATE: Apr 30, 2019 | CATEGORY: From the Chamber

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