Columnists - The Durango Herald

Rethinking ear and tail docking: Protecting dogs from unnecessary surgery

Ear and tail docking involve surgically removing part of a dog’s ears or tail. This practice, which has been around for centuries, originally aimed to prevent injuries in hunting and working...

DATE: Oct 18, 2024 | CATEGORY: From the Humane Society

Husband makes music with another woman

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I used to play in a band together. He played guitar, and I sang. He now has another female singer in his band, and I can hardly contain my feelings. In the beginnin...

DATE: Oct 17, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Wife’s ‘adjustment’ irks husband

DEAR ABBY: Recently, my wife and I and several other couples were houseguests in a large home. Among them was a couple who, when introduced, mentioned that the husband was a chiropractor. Th...

DATE: Oct 17, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

The seduction of scapegoating

Immigration has risen to the top of the issue list for a clear majority of Americans. For many voters, it is now more important than the economy, inequality, health care, education, housing,...

DATE: Oct 17, 2024 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Blessing Chimanga values connection

Blessing Chimanga wanted to set himself apart. The South African musician, born in Zimbabwe and currently working at Kutandara Studio in Boulder, wanted to find a unique way he’d be identifi...

DATE: Oct 16, 2024 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Mountain lions: Truth not myth

When scientists become advocates during an election and tell you “just the facts,” you can be certain they are only telling you part of the facts. As Colorado’s carnivore biologist with Colo...

DATE: Oct 15, 2024 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Leaving leaves leaves us left out

Dear Action Line: Why can’t the city of Durango do a better job forecasting when the leaves will fall from the trees? The fall cleanup has started, but the leaves at my house have not al...

DATE: Oct 14, 2024 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Relationship grows amid loss

DEAR ABBY: My husband died a year ago, after a nine-year battle with dementia. I recently met a man, “Richard,” whose wife is in the end stages of dementia, which could last for several mont...

DATE: Oct 12, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Report estimates more than 18K Coloradans disenfranchised while imprisoned for felonies

A new report from The Sentencing Project estimates more than 18,000 Coloradans serving time for a felony conviction in prison or jail won’t be able to vote in the 2024 election. The Sentenci...

DATE: Oct 12, 2024 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Proposition 127 protects Colorado’s majestic mountain lions and bobcats

We are current and former Colorado Parks and Wildlife commissioners, which is the body that sets wildlife policy, including a former chair, and we encourage a “yes” vote on Proposition 127. ...

DATE: Oct 12, 2024 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Durango School District 9-R: Celebrating progress, addressing urgent needs

As I start my fourth year as superintendent of Durango School District 9-R, I would like to share our recent achievements and outline the critical challenges we face, particularly regarding ...

DATE: Oct 12, 2024 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Examining the winged horse, Pegasus

Greetings, stargazers. Our extra wet end of summer has given way to an extra dry stretch of weather for the leaf changing season. Maybe we will get some good viewing in. Fall’s evening sky i...

DATE: Oct 11, 2024 | CATEGORY: What's up in Durango Skies

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