Columnists - The Durango Herald

Young dog has become a nuisance and a danger

DEAR ABBY: I am a retiree with diabetes and heart trouble. My husband is disabled. I’m his sole caregiver when I have the energy to do it. Our adult daughter lives with us and works full tim...

DATE: Aug 10, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

There is still a scandal around president Joe Biden

One of the Biden White House’s greatest achievements, from the perspective of its staff members, if not necessarily the country, has been to deny the press the kind of juicy leaks that were ...

DATE: Aug 10, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Project 2025 puts public lands in peril

Google “Project 2025.” It’s a 920-page manifesto for a potential second Trump administration that has something (bad) for everyone, but our great public lands estate is put in particular per...

DATE: Aug 10, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Nuclear cheerleading is fine – but what about the cost?

It mystifies me, this perfervid belief in nuclear energy that I see in parts of Colorado. Just weeks ago, the commissioners in one Western Slope county added their support for nuclear. They ...

DATE: Aug 10, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Paddling Birch Creek, Alaska: Dispatch from a warming world

This summer, with Fort Lewis College alumni and a current FLC history student, seven of us canoed Birch Creek, which is one of Alaska’s wild and scenic rivers east of Fairbanks. We paddled f...

DATE: Aug 9, 2024 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

‘Content to move at a cow’s pace. Ungulates amble’

I like cows. Yes, I am a bovinophile. They are warm cuddly independent beasts who choose to go through life at their own pace. If you want to befriend a cow, you must adapt to its leisurely ...

DATE: Aug 9, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Unstable relative reappears as dad’s health declines

DEAR ABBY: My aunt frequently cuts people out of her life for perceived slights – small, large and imagined. A few years ago, she got into a fight with my dad (her brother). Somehow, the res...

DATE: Aug 8, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Being an entrepreneur is risky and rewarding business

It’s that time of year. Pop-up lemonade stands hosted by enthusiastic children dwindle with the start of school. Cottage Foods producers, artists and farmers continue to fill booths at summe...

DATE: Aug 8, 2024 | CATEGORY: From the Extension Office

Teaching children about disabilities

What did you learn about disabilities as a kid? I grew up in Louisiana and Arkansas in the 1970s and ’80s, and I suspect my experience was typical of that place and era. If there were kids w...

DATE: Aug 8, 2024 | CATEGORY: Creating Community

The Watson Twins: ‘It’s one of our true gifts in life’

They were singing before they could walk and talk. Identical twins Chandra and Leigh Watson have been harmonizing together since Day One, a lifetime pursuit of perfecting their vocal chops. ...

DATE: Aug 7, 2024 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

Erosion: The Power of Water

Wherever you are from, I’m sure you’ve had out-of-towners ask you, “Is this weather normal?” Here in the San Juan Mountains, the answer is always yes. From a blizzard in July to 70 degrees i...

DATE: Aug 7, 2024 | CATEGORY: Stewards of the Land

Unmined coal ‘follows market, law, public opinion’

The coal mining industry reacted with outrage when the Bureau of Land Management recently announced plans to stop issuing new coal leases on the eastern plains of Wyoming and Montana. From i...

DATE: Aug 7, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

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