Columnists - The Durango Herald

Dad’s suicide affects daughter’s choices

DEAR ABBY: My husband’s uncle died by suicide in his home six months ago. It was a shock to the entire family. Since the funeral, we have helped to settle his affairs, including cleaning out...

DATE: Sep 27, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

A dazzling showcase

The Fort Lewis College Performing Arts Department will unveil the 2024 Faculty Showcase at 3 p.m. Sunday in Roshong Recital Hall. It’s a significant event as the recital brings forth veteran...

DATE: Sep 25, 2024 | CATEGORY: Culture Gulch

Chris Ross Quintet honors jazz

Mesa Verde Farm and Studio has found a house musician and bandleader in Chris Ross. The at times artist getaway and creative space, other times concert venue, tucked away in Montezuma County...

DATE: Sep 25, 2024 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Man feels threatened by friend’s girlfriend

DEAR ABBY: I’m a gay man who is best friends with “Carl,” a man who is straight. We are everything you’d expect of a normal friendship. On a surface level, there is no difference. He goes we...

DATE: Sep 24, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Life terrifying for apartment tenant

DEAR ABBY: I live in an apartment building. I am quiet and keep to myself. There’s a concierge here who is incredibly nosy. When I pick up my package, she asks, “So, what’s in the package?” ...

DATE: Sep 24, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

“Romance has unintended consequence

DEAR ABBY: A close male friend, “Will,” ended our friendship without warning. I didn’t know he had such strong feelings about my current arrangement. I have been dating a married man, “Bart,...

DATE: Sep 24, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Mountain lions are our natural allies

I’ve hunted practically as long as I can remember, pursuing small game, upland birds, waterfowl, and deer, elk and caribou. It’s been a lifelong passion, and helped shape my values as a care...

DATE: Sep 24, 2024 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Convention wisdom says mall not the right place

Dear Action Line: Recently I came up with an excellent idea, but don’t know who to tell it to, so have opted for Action Line as an all-knowing disseminator of information. Before the pan...

DATE: Sep 23, 2024 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Crossing structures help migrating wildlife

With fall upon us, big game animals are on the move from summer ranges in the high country back down to lower elevation winter ranges. That inevitably means elk and deer are crossing highway...

DATE: Sep 22, 2024 | CATEGORY: Thinking Green

Truth is out there for all to see in Aurora while Republicans promote a dangerous lie

We can argue all we want about who won the Harris-Trump debate, but there’s no question who lost: Aurora. The people of Aurora were slandered in the service of a racist lie that Trump gleefu...

DATE: Sep 20, 2024 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

A remedy from depression and/or anxiety is out there

If you’ve read any of my previous columns, you know, I struggle with depression. For 2½ years, I’ve gone in and out of severe clinical depression. I am free from depression for the time bein...

DATE: Sep 20, 2024 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Heritage and home: Durango School District opens doors to diversity

It’s Hispanic Heritage Month! From Sept. 15 to Oct. 15, we celebrate the rich culture, history and contributions of the Hispanic community that enhance our nation and schools. In Durango Sch...

DATE: Sep 20, 2024 | CATEGORY: Columnists

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