Columnists - The Durango Herald

‘It’s what we do’: Salt of the earth Durangoans exemplars for all

A relative newcomer to Durango, I’m learning my way around, making little trips around town and getting a feel for everyday life. Take the other day, for instance. My first stop was nearby, ...

DATE: Dec 31, 2024 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Ag stories are hot potatoes these days

Dear Action Line: This Durango Herald photo and story is from 1970 when this town still cared about agriculture news. Yes, finding a very cool potato was more important than the three-wa...

DATE: Dec 30, 2024 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Through the changes, the good and bad, community remains steadfast

It’s the end of 2024. Personally, I will be glad to see this year in the rearview mirror, if only because it was a particularly divisive election year that seemed to go on forever. It’s the ...

DATE: Dec 29, 2024 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Amid an explosion of capability, artificial intelligence leadership is imperative

Hearing aids that form a bubble around two people in a crowded room to bring new life and interaction for the hearing impaired. A robot that delivers food to your table after the waitstaff t...

DATE: Dec 28, 2024 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Wife unhappy with ‘gifts’ – and giver

DEAR ABBY: My husband took me on a trip for my birthday this year, only he didn’t prepare for anything other than some sightseeing events. He didn’t help plan for camping, didn’t financially...

DATE: Dec 27, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

For enslaved people, the holiday season was a time for revelry – and a brief window to fight back

During the era of slavery in the Americas, enslaved men, women and children also enjoyed the holidays. Slave owners usually gave them bigger portions of food, gifted them alcohol and provide...

DATE: Dec 26, 2024 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Cody Tinnin fronts Weminuche

Cody Tinnin’s new musical role finds him at the front and center of the stage. In the past, the former bass player for local bluegrass band Stillhouse Junkies found himself in that position ...

DATE: Dec 26, 2024 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Spouse wants in-laws to stay in hotel

DEAR ABBY: My spouse and I (both women) have been together for 25 years. For half of them, we lived in the Middle East. We met while working as health care expatriates. My spouse is from Sou...

DATE: Dec 24, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Boyfriend ignores partner’s wishes

DEAR ABBY: My boyfriend and I recently bought our first house together. It has an outdoor kitchen and other features he really likes. I like it too, but there have been some issues already i...

DATE: Dec 24, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Son’s wife prefers company of phone

DEAR ABBY: When my son got married in 2003, we had many good times with him and his wife. Things have changed now that we have cellphones. It’s nearly impossible to have a relationship with ...

DATE: Dec 24, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Sandbox values, ‘treat others how you’d like to be treated,’ all year

I’m not a praying man or much of a churchgoer, to begin with. Still, I love Christmas. Not all the commercial stuff attached to it. That’s nothing more than what a barnacle is to a boat, not...

DATE: Dec 24, 2024 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

The all-too-popular middle turn lane takes center stage

Dear Action Line: It is quite common on north Main for a car turning left out of a business to use the middle turn lane as a merge lane or a place to stop and wait for a traffic opening....

DATE: Dec 23, 2024 | CATEGORY: Action Line

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