Columnists - The Durango Herald

No wedding invite for selfless friend

DEAR ABBY: My co-worker and supposed friend asked if she could borrow my wedding dress because she thought it was so beautiful. I was thrilled to lend it to her and paid for the alterati...

DATE: Aug 11, 2018 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Rigney: LWCF deserves permanent protection

At Osprey – a leading manufacturer of outdoor gear, employing over 115 people in the U.S. – we believe that adventure is open to everyone. Nowhere does that feel more true than i...

DATE: Aug 10, 2018 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Thousands of students benefit from visits to Durango Nature Center

The natural world provides an important laboratory for all learners. Just when it started to feel like a normal summer, I turned the page on the calendar to see the start of the s...

DATE: Aug 10, 2018 | CATEGORY: Durango Nature Studies

Smart planning can go a long way when it’s time to retire

Over the last few weeks, four friends have decided that it was time to retire. Retirement should take some planning – at least five years is the recommendation. Because the natio...

DATE: Aug 10, 2018 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Our good intentions are imprisoning people

This idea that when we’re old we get to wear purple is way too tame for the generations approaching their twilight years. When we’re old, we get to rock out till 3 a.m. to Judas Priest at a ...

DATE: Aug 10, 2018 | CATEGORY: Creating Community

Guilt remains after friendship ends

DEAR ABBY: My “friend” from childhood, “Camille,” has never had my back. I have done the heavy lifting in our friendship our whole lives. While I was on vacation two years ag...

DATE: Aug 10, 2018 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Robinson: Trump’s rhetoric is going to get someone killed

Everything you need to know about today’s Republican Party is summed up by a photograph from President Trump’s political rally in Ohio last Saturday. Two men in the crowd look de...

DATE: Aug 9, 2018 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Waiting for the bomb in Santa Fe

Even though rain pounded the Santa Fe Opera last Thursday, the show went on. Thunder, lightning and sheets of water fell throughout most of Act I of “Dr. Atomic.” Crew members sw...

DATE: Aug 9, 2018 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Mom charges rent after wedding

DEAR ABBY: My mother-in-law owns the building my husband and I live in. I moved in with him about a year ago, before we were married. Because she owns the building, she doesn’t charge he...

DATE: Aug 9, 2018 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Samuelson: Welcome to the age of malware

WASHINGTON — Welcome to the Age of Malware. It promises to be a huge downer and, possibly, a great tragedy. For years, we have regarded personal computers, the internet, smartphon...

DATE: Aug 8, 2018 | CATEGORY: Robert Samuelson

Grandma worries about exposed toddler

DEAR ABBY: My daughter “Scarlet” has a precious 18-month-old baby girl I’ll call Sierra. Scarlet, her husband and the baby spend a lot of time at their beach house, where they have sever...

DATE: Aug 8, 2018 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Goldberg: Will the birthplace of the modern right turn blue?

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – July 31, 2018, was a Tuesday, which meant that constituents of Dana Rohrabacher, the Republican congressman from Orange County, were out protesting. Until...

DATE: Aug 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