Columnists - The Durango Herald

Ranky Tanky uses music to teach history

A Ranky Tanky concert provides two outcomes. One being what you’d expect from a concert: You dance, you’re entertained, you leave the venue musically satisfied. The other outcome appeals to ...

DATE: Apr 18, 2019 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

On the border, for Trump, the Pottery Barn rule

WASHINGTON – President Trump is right. There’s a crisis on the southern border. The existence of the crisis is as obvious as its cause: Trump. He didn’t single-handedly create thi...

DATE: Apr 18, 2019 | CATEGORY: Dana Milbank

Wife discovers trail left by adulterer

Dear Abby: My husband went to his 45th class reunion a state away and hooked up with a classmate. Over the next few months it went from talking and texting to her sending him nude pictur...

DATE: Apr 17, 2019 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Managing your stress: The eternal energy drainer

Are you stressed? You’re probably thinking, “Ha! Who isn’t?” You’re right. Stress in our lives is constant. It’s been around since the beginning of life as we know it, and it’s no...

DATE: Apr 16, 2019 | CATEGORY: Healing Nutrition

Welcome to the millionaires club, Sen. Sanders

“I wrote a best-selling book. If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too.” With those words, Bernie Sanders acknowledged that he has joined the ranks of the “...

DATE: Apr 16, 2019 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

New intersection takes a turn for the worse

Here’s a photo of the renovated 22nd Street and Main Avenue intersection. Across the intersection is a two-way street, Alamo Drive. If I obey the posted signs, I can only turn left in the le...

DATE: Apr 15, 2019 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Politics puts abrupt end to friendship

Dear Abby: In the last presidential election, I had a friend who voted differently than I did. We didn’t try to persuade each other to vote “our” way, but I did share on social media som...

DATE: Apr 15, 2019 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Federal control of education has failed ... Next?

WASHINGTON – You can count on one familiar refrain in the 2020 presidential campaign: Fix the schools. Faith in education is one of the nation’s bedrock values. Better schools wou...

DATE: Apr 14, 2019 | CATEGORY: Robert Samuelson

Intoxicated passengers make for unruly skies

Incidents involving unruly airline passengers have been rising in recent years. In 2017, airlines reported one altercation for every 1,053 flights, up 35 percent from the previou...

DATE: Apr 14, 2019 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

Roosevelt in Colorado: Stained glass honors president who cherished the West

A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt died at his home in Sagamore Hill, New York, but his contributions to the West and to Colorado live on. Teddy was beloved by many West...

DATE: Apr 14, 2019 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

The patriot’s guide to fraud

North Carolina’s Dan McCready couldn’t accept that electoral tampering was no big deal

DATE: Apr 13, 2019 | CATEGORY: Frank Bruni

I fought for the college – and lost

I had to put up a fight this week. Some might say it was a David and Goliath attempt, or a blood from a turnip attempt. Whatever it was called, my attempt failed, but not for lack...

DATE: Apr 13, 2019 | 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