Columnists - The Durango Herald

Joe Biden: What Americans should remember about Jan. 6

Jan. 6, 2025, s pecial to The Washington Post On this Jan. 6, order will be called. Clerks, staff and members of Congress will gather to certify the results of a free and fair presi...

DATE: Jan 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Filling 2025 with joy, not wasting a single healthy moment

As 2024 comes to an end and 2025 awakens, I find myself rehashing the past events and imagining the future. 2024 was a very difficult year for me as I spent a good chunk of it deeply and chr...

DATE: Jan 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Bumper Sticker of the Month (BSoM)

Thanks for all your submissions. This month’s choice was submitted by Julie Engelken. Please email your favorite bumper stickers to letters@durangoherald.com for a chance to be featured as B...

DATE: Jan 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Stepdaughter’s gift hurts feelings

DEAR ABBY: My stepdaughter “Annie” gave my husband a photo album of his life for his 80th birthday. The album included pictures of his parents and grandparents as well as photos from his fir...

DATE: Jan 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

The holidays are out, but the bills are in: Tips to help you save money

The holidays have ended, but one final gift remains. With perfect folds, this package is wrapped in paper as white as the snow blanketing the beautiful San Juan Mountains. You almost hate to...

DATE: Jan 11, 2025 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Taurus the bull and Orion the hunter

Greetings, stargazers. A prominent winter constellation is Taurus, the bull. It is particularly easy to find this month, because Jupiter is right in the middle of it. At magnitude -2.68, Jup...

DATE: Jan 10, 2025 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

A day in the life: Behind the scenes of a field trip adventure

Imagine stepping into a snow-covered forest, where every tree whispers stories of resilience, and the crunch of snowshoes underfoot is the only sound breaking the winter silence …and, oh yea...

DATE: Jan 10, 2025 | CATEGORY: Stewards of the Land

Utah’s potential land grab: A new fight for the West begins

Utah politicians seek to ignore the U.S. Constitution by claiming 18.5 million acres of your federal public land – most of it administered by the Bureau of Land Management. Utahans have ofte...

DATE: Jan 10, 2025 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

Widower badgers late wife’s friends

DEAR ABBY: My friend of 30 years passed away two years ago. Her husband, with whom I had a cordial relationship, has been calling me and other friends of his wife nonstop. He usually calls w...

DATE: Jan 10, 2025 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Blue Man Group: You do need drumming skills, though not be bald

If you haven’t yet experienced Blue Man Group, you need to figure out how to do so before they end their shows. This show is unlike anything you have ever seen. It is made up of three nonve...

DATE: Jan 10, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

We can do better addressing gender disparities in disabilities

Does gender impact disability? It’s an interesting, complicated question that is finally being asked and more than we can completely unpack in a few paragraphs. But the simple answer is “yes...

DATE: Jan 9, 2025 | CATEGORY: Creating Community

The Motet returns to Durango

Sarah Clarke has always been singing. That hobby of singing since she was a kid turned into a profession, something that helped her hit the ground running when she joined Colorado-based funk...

DATE: Jan 8, 2025 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

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