Health - The Durango Herald

Study suggests women less likely to get CPR from bystanders

ANAHEIM, Calif. – Women are less likely than men to get CPR from a bystander and more likely to die, a new study suggests, and researchers think reluctance to touch a woman’s chest might be ...

DATE: Nov 15, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Half of U.S. adults have high blood pressure in new guidelines

ANAHEIM, Calif. – New guidelines lower the threshold for high blood pressure, adding 30 million Americans to those who have the condition, which now plagues nearly half of U.S. adults. ...

DATE: Nov 14, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Diabetes: Avoid joining the trend

Are you diabetic or have a close family member or friend who is? November is National Diabetes Month and brings attention to the group of disorders and their impact on millions of Americans....

DATE: Nov 14, 2017 | CATEGORY: Healing Nutrition

Half of U.S. adults have high blood pressure in new guidelines

ANAHEIM, Calif. – New guidelines lower the threshold for high blood pressure, adding 30 million Americans to those who have the condition, which now plagues nearly half of U.S. adults. ...

DATE: Nov 14, 2017 | CATEGORY: Nation & World

Is it an emergency? Insurer makes patients question ER visit

INDIANAPOLIS – Alison Wrenne was making waffles for her two young children one morning when abdominal pain forced her to the floor. A neighbor who is a physician assistant urged her to go to...

DATE: Nov 9, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Boy with rare disease gets brand new skin with gene therapy

LONDON – Doctors treating a critically ill boy with a devastating skin disease used experimental gene therapy to create an entirely new skin for most of his body in a desperate attempt to sa...

DATE: Nov 8, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Drugstore pain pills as effective as opioids in ER patients

CHICAGO – Emergency rooms are where many patients are first introduced to powerful opioid painkillers, but what if doctors offered over-the-counter pills instead? A new study tested that app...

DATE: Nov 7, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Concerned about inflammation? These foods may help

There’s a lot of talk about inflammation and anti-inflammatory diets – but there’s also a lot of misinformation and confusion surrounding these nutrition buzz words. Many people aren’t quite...

DATE: Nov 2, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Do I have Alzheimer’s or don’t I?

He lived with a diagnosis for years, but he may not have it

DATE: Nov 1, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

FDA moves to ax claim for heart benefits from soy foods

WASHINGTON – U.S. regulators want to remove a health claim about the heart benefits of soy from cartons of soy milk, tofu and other foods, saying the latest scientific evidence no longer sho...

DATE: Oct 31, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

‘What could help me to die?’ Doctors clash over euthanasia

GHENT, Belgium – After struggling with mental illness for years, Cornelia Geerts was so desperate to die that she asked her psychiatrist to kill her. Her sister worried that her j...

DATE: Oct 30, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

A shocking overdose photo exposed her addiction – and may have saved her life

Erika Hurt had become the face of drug addiction. The young mother was captured in a photograph by police, passed out in the driver’s seat of her car outside a Dollar General stor...

DATE: Oct 28, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

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