Columnists - The Durango Herald

Disagreement progresses to estrangement

DEAR ABBY: After several years of worsening arguments, I told my father I was tired of fighting with him, and we needed family counseling. He was deeply, explosively offended and not only re...

DATE: Aug 1, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Daniel Donato plays Rhythms on the Rio

Daniel Donato has his eyes on Colorado. The young Nashville, Tennessee-based guitar player is climbing the ranks of hot musicians of not only the jam, but the indie country realm. With seri...

DATE: Jul 31, 2024 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

‘30 bills sponsored, signed in 2024’

Recently I wrote about what we in the state Legislature did for Colorado this year; I am proud to have been a part of that team effort. This month, I present the 30 bills I sponsored and the...

DATE: Jul 31, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

After grief, caregiver may recognize new signs of life’

What do you have left in your life when you’ve lost the two men you loved most because of dementia? Gone are the dreams of future times together, that data bank of shared memories, that one-...

DATE: Jul 31, 2024 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

‘30 bills sponsored, signed in 2024’

Recently I wrote about what we in the state Legislature did for Colorado this year; I am proud to have been a part of that team effort. This month, I present the 30 bills I sponsored and the...

DATE: Jul 31, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Secrets still held as union ends

DEAR ABBY: After many years of trying to keep our family together, divorce is our final option. My husband has had two affairs that I know of during our 30-year marriage. They hurt me deeply...

DATE: Jul 30, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

You’re not being gaslighted: Parkers must pay up

Dear Action Line: What’s up with the parking lot behind the Gaslight theater? This lot has not been charging for over a year and suddenly everyone is getting a $60 ticket. No notice or w...

DATE: Jul 29, 2024 | CATEGORY: Action Line

Man has long endured insults from wife

DEAR ABBY: I'm a 50-year-old man, married for 17 years with two kids. I have a mostly good marriage, but I have been noticing things that bother me. Almost daily, my wife seems to insult me ...

DATE: Jul 27, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Libraries can be a valuable buttress during life’s storms

Recently, a friend of mine gave a motivational speech in which she compared what bison (American Buffalo) do and what cattle do when they sense a storm approaching. She explained that when s...

DATE: Jul 26, 2024 | CATEGORY: Shelf Life

‘Joys of long marriage how personal, pragmatic moosh together’

My husband, Dan Collins, died this month because of COVID-19 and pneumonia. By the time he passed, Dan had been sedated for a while, and there’s a small controversy over what was said the la...

DATE: Jul 26, 2024 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Mom uses social media to disparage kids

DEAR ABBY: My mother is toxic. She had a terrible childhood, and she takes it out on me and my younger siblings. I live far away; they live in the same town as she does. If they don’t drop e...

DATE: Jul 25, 2024 | CATEGORY: Dear Abby

Bar D Wranglers serve up music, comedy

June 2, 1969, was a historic day in Durango, as it was the start of one of the longest running restaurants and shows in Durango. That’s the day the Bar D Chuckwagon opened its doors north of...

DATE: Jul 24, 2024 | CATEGORY: Downtown Lowdown

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