Columnists - The Durango Herald

Conservation fund needs to be revived, saved, now

Considering the amount of time I spend on public lands fishing, communing with wildlife, hiking, mountain biking, and spending time with friends and family, I figured it was time for me to e...

DATE: Dec 9, 2018 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Bigger fines might help airlines focus on service

What if airlines could do almost anything they wanted, knowing that they would probably get away with it? As 2018 comes to a close, critics say that’s already the case. The reason? Lax gover...

DATE: Dec 9, 2018 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

No mystery in the failure of that city tax increase

I have opted to write an open letter to Durango City Council instead of attending one of its scheduled community sessions, in hopes of directly sharing my thoughts and perspectives about bud...

DATE: Dec 8, 2018 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Colorado deer, elk are safe for now

Much ink has been spilled about Chronic Wasting Disease, which affects deer. CWD has slowly spread over the last few decades, and some hunters are worried it will decimate deer po...

DATE: Dec 8, 2018 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

To achieve your goals, you need to build habits that work

Right now, I’m leading a month-long Whatever It Takes program designed to foster habits that lead to goal achievement. Personally, the practices I’m building are: Reading at leas...

DATE: Dec 8, 2018 | CATEGORY: Money Savvy

Mancos mapmaker chronicles John Wesley Powell’s epic 1869 journey

In the Southwest, river runners and river rats have the same great, great grandfather. Our patriarch is the one-armed Maj. John Wesley Powell, who launched four wooden boats in M...

DATE: Dec 8, 2018 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

Mars landing a remarkable feat of space flight

Greetings, Stargazers. NASA’s Mars InSight lander is designed to study the interior of Mars. InSight stands for interior exploration using seismic investigations, geodesy and heat...

DATE: Dec 8, 2018 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

Understanding nature is critical in this changing world

If you are like me, your morning routine isn’t complete until you’ve checked Jeff Givens’ latest forecast. His blog, durangoweatherguy.com, is bookmarked on all my devices, and h...

DATE: Dec 8, 2018 | CATEGORY: Durango Nature Studies

Festival of Trees a special annual holiday celebration

I have an assignment for you after you read this column: Get dressed, grab the family and head over to this year’s Festival of Trees event to support Community Connections and the services w...

DATE: Dec 7, 2018 | CATEGORY: Creating Community

Drunk driver’s wife has warning

DEAR ABBY: Many wives write you about problems with their husbands who drink too much. If they live in a community property state, there’s something important they need to know. If the h...

DATE: Dec 7, 2018 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

What I want for Christmas

I’m no different from my friends. I’d love to open the paper on Christmas day and see that world peace had broken out, hunger was now gone and that the United States now had political partie...

DATE: Dec 7, 2018 | CATEGORY: Flies & Lies

The real China challenge: managing its decline

In 2009, The Economist wrote about an up-and-coming global power: Brazil. Its economy, the magazine suggested, would soon overtake that of France or the U.K. as the world’s fifth ...

DATE: Dec 7, 2018 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

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