Health - The Durango Herald

Should women older than 18 get the HPV vaccine?

About half of American teenagers have been vaccinated against the human papillomavirus (HPV), the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. Should adult women follow s...

DATE: Oct 17, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Got 10 minutes? You can do this workout

You don’t have to go to the gym

DATE: Oct 13, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Active, virtuous living may not always protect your heart

Exercise is good, but nothing is 100 percent protective

DATE: Oct 12, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Bystander rape-prevention programs face questions

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Training programs around the country are trying to teach bystanders to stop sexual assault, and now is when they have to be especially alert. Campus sexual assault repor...

DATE: Oct 11, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Colorado dentists and other doctors seek opioid alternatives as crisis worsens

Wisdom teeth surgery involves pliers, so there’s often some post-operative pain. For years, dentists have prescribed painkilling opioids, like percocet or vicodin for patients. Bu...

DATE: Oct 9, 2017 | CATEGORY: Regional News

Study examines how far U.S. women must travel to get abortion

NEW YORK – How far do American women need to travel in order to obtain an abortion? A new study, billed as the first of its kind, makes those calculations state-by-state and count...

DATE: Oct 6, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Trying to get sober? NIH offers tool to help find good care

WASHINGTON – The phone calls come – from fellow scientists and desperate strangers – with a single question for the alcohol chief at the National Institutes of Health: Where can my loved one...

DATE: Oct 4, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Failure to vaccinate is likely driver of U.S. measles outbreaks, report says

People who don’t get vaccinated are the most likely reason for the steady increase in the rate of measles and major outbreaks in the United States, according to an analysis released Tuesday....

DATE: Oct 3, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Being empathetic is good, but it can hurt your health

Your husband was just passed over for a promotion, and he’s depressed. Your friend’s breast cancer has returned. As a supportive spouse and friend, you feel their pain. Growing research sugg...

DATE: Sep 29, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Babies try harder when they see you sweat, research shows

NEW YORK – If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Especially if a baby is watching. Children around 15 months old can become more persistent in pursuing a goal if they’ve ...

DATE: Sep 28, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Wanted: 1 million people to study genes, habits and health

WASHINGTON – In a quest to end cookie-cutter health care, U.S. researchers are getting ready to recruit more than 1 million people for an unprecedented study to learn how our genes, environm...

DATE: Sep 27, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Buyer beware: Long-term care costs are surging

Long-term care costs are surging again and the most expensive option — a private nursing home room — may soon top $100,000 per year. Growing labor expenses and sicker patients hel...

DATE: Sep 26, 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