Columnists - The Durango Herald

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

Older bachelor interested in teen girl

DEAR ABBY: I have a 59-year-old brother-in-law who has always been a “proud bachelor.” He isn’t a rich, handsome, George Clooney-type bachelor, but a hand-to-mouth, burping, uncouth “Sha...

DATE: Jun 20, 2018 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Cancer patient goes into detail

DEAR ABBY: A dear friend has been battling cervical cancer. Her condition has left her dependent on a colostomy bag. She’s not shy about discussing it on Facebook and in public, where sh...

DATE: Jun 19, 2018 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Douthat: Choose the lesser cruelty on immigration

Let’s start with the easy part. The policy of separating children from their parents at the southern border, delivering them into a bureaucratic labyrinth while their fathers and mothers awa...

DATE: Jun 18, 2018 | CATEGORY: Ross Douthat

Questioning the conventional wisdom about summer travel

The 99 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day are the busiest of the year for travel, but also the most misunderstood. The conventional wisdom surrounding summer travel includes...

DATE: Jun 18, 2018 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

License plates at forefront of controversy

I’ve been wondering why many Colorado vehicles don’t have front license plates? Doesn’t the law say Colorado drivers need both? Maybe these people want to be pulled over for roadside dancing...

DATE: Jun 18, 2018 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Brooks: Personalism is the philosophy we need

One of the lessons of a life in journalism is that people are always way more complicated than you think. We talk in shorthand about “Trump voters” or “social justice warriors,” but when you...

DATE: Jun 18, 2018 | CATEGORY: David Brooks

Couple disagrees about adoption

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I have been happily married for two years. We both want biological children later, when the timing is right. A while ago, some friends adopted a lit...

DATE: Jun 18, 2018 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Daughter saddened by Father’s Day

DEAR ABBY: My step-dad came into my life when I was a young teen. He never tried to replace my dad, and was very respectful of that relationship. I didn’t regard him as a father figure, ...

DATE: Jun 17, 2018 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

We are not victims of this fire

The glowing, orange-red sun peeked out at me this morning as it rose above the ridge on the east side of the valley across from my house. It reminded me of summer trips my family...

DATE: Jun 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: The Tourism Effect

For 50 years, Wild and Scenic Rivers Act preserves waterways

Fifty years ago, Congress passed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. It was a counterpoint to the West’s flurry of dam-building in the 1950s and 1960s that saw dams erected across ma...

DATE: Jun 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

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