Columnists - The Durango Herald

Marbury: I could not be prouder of our town

The firefighters and support teams protecting Durango are our heroes. I see signs at businesses and placards in windows, and I hear the applause in the voices of residents in our community f...

DATE: Jun 23, 2018 | CATEGORY: From the Mayor

Finding a future in Durango: EDV program is an essential link to a better life

Nearly 246,000 Nepalese live throughout the United States, and of this number, about 13,000 make Colorado home. Of these, a small number live right here in Durango. People do not...

DATE: Jun 23, 2018 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

From high up in a Spanish soccer stadium, I looked at the city I love

Valencia is a city to fall in love with. It’s not love at first site, granted, but a growing love that makes you feel connected. It’s not like Barcelona or Sevilla, filled with a...

DATE: Jun 23, 2018 | CATEGORY: An American in Spain

Stepmother tired of giving rides

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I have been married 2½ years. We have both been married before. I have a son, and he has three daughters. My son is married with two children. He works and is p...

DATE: Jun 23, 2018 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

As fire burns, a reminder that we live in uncertainty

We’re gathered for dinner in our hot house, closed up as a barrier against the smoke that fills the Animas Valley by night, creeping down from the 416 Fire like an escaped thief as we sleep....

DATE: Jun 22, 2018 | CATEGORY: Adventures in Motherhood

How to help your future self

We’ve come to the final column in this 12-part series about taking control of yourmoney and living the life of your dreams. As you know by now, the benefits of improving your fina...

DATE: Jun 22, 2018 | CATEGORY: Money Savvy

Vets may be affected by past water contamination

From the 1950s through the 1980s, people serving or living at the U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, were potentially exposed to drinking water contaminated with industrial...

DATE: Jun 22, 2018 | CATEGORY: Serving Veterans

Milbank: Here come the first casualties in our trade wars

WASHINGTON – President Trump believes that “trade wars are good, and easy to win.” So he started one. Now the casualties are beginning to return home from the battlefield, and on ...

DATE: Jun 22, 2018 | CATEGORY: Dana Milbank

Man and mother interrupt plans

DEAR ABBY: I am a woman, 34, who has finally met the man I want to spend my life with. He’s 31, and his family lives about six hours away. He plans to move his mother here to live in the...

DATE: Jun 22, 2018 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Gerson: Defending border cruelty with heresy

WASHINGTON — Logic not being the strong point of the Trump administration, it claims that it is not to blame for the separation of families at the border, and that a just God is pleased it i...

DATE: Jun 21, 2018 | CATEGORY: Michael Gerson

Man proposes to engaged woman

DEAR ABBY: I met the love of my life eight months ago. Everything about our relationship is perfect. We both love our families, fine food, games and, most importantly, each other. We met...

DATE: Jun 21, 2018 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Menconi: Time to elect a true activist to Congress

Follow the money and you see who and what runs America. What are the federal government’s five biggest benefactors? 1. Finance and banking; 2. The military and securi...

DATE: Jun 20, 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