Columnists - The Durango Herald

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

Wife attracted to woman causes confusion

DEAR ABBY: I am a 50-year-old woman. I have been married to my husband for 28 years and never cheated. We have a good life together, and our sex life has always been great, but I have re...

DATE: Aug 7, 2018 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Learning, growing can all start with healthy snack

It’s shocking that despite all the medical advances over the last century, today’s children are expected to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. A big contributor to...

DATE: Aug 7, 2018 | CATEGORY: Healing Nutrition

Zakaria: There is only one way out of Afghanistan

NEW YORK — Donald Trump campaigned as someone who wanted to get America out of the Middle East. But he also cast himself as a tough guy, and his initial instincts in office were to show forc...

DATE: Aug 6, 2018 | CATEGORY: Fareed Zakaria

The horses are wild. Time to tame our policy.

Wild mustangs are a problem. A fascinating problem. Even captivating. Just hearing those half-ton hide-wrapped packages of muscle and bone snort and stomp as they toss their heads can knock ...

DATE: Aug 6, 2018 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Let the county fair shine its light on you

You look for bright spots. No matter what you have happening in your life, you look for those times, those people or those moments when a bit of sunshine can make a world of diff...

DATE: Aug 6, 2018 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

City has concrete laws regarding sidewalk cows

A friend and I encountered this colorful cow, apparently lost from the Chicago “CowParade” art exhibit, and she (the cow and not my friend) was partially blocking our path on the sidewalk. I...

DATE: Aug 6, 2018 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Man left jobless after surgery

DEAR ABBY: After 16 years of loyal and dedicated service to my employer, I find myself out of work. Months ago, I needed double knee replacements. I gave him three months’ notice about m...

DATE: Aug 6, 2018 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Writers on the Range: To survive we need immigrants working the land

It is 11:30 at night on our farm in the West, in a part of Colorado that I’d rather not identify, and we are trying to get our grain corn harvested before a storm hits us hard. I ...

DATE: Aug 5, 2018 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Murder, DNA and a wild-goose chase across Europe

Police detectives across Europe called her “The Woman Without a Face.” She’d murdered at least six people and committed some two dozen lesser crimes in three countries. In 1993, a...

DATE: Aug 5, 2018 | CATEGORY: Coroner's Report

How to protect your devices from the rigors of the road

I wish I’d known just how fragile my technology was when I visited St. George, Utah, during a one-week tour of the state’s national parks. In a grocery store parking lot, my son ...

DATE: Aug 5, 2018 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

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