Health - The Durango Herald

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

What it’s like to survive a lightning strike

Rain and hail were pelting down and a thunderclap roared across a lake in central California. From afar, the fiery lightning strike that came with it looked like an explosion, dar...

DATE: Sep 25, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

America’s opioid problem is so bad it’s cutting into U.S. life expectancy

Prosecutors in New York announced this week that an August drug raid yielded 140 pounds of fentanyl, the most in the city’s history and enough to kill 32 million people, they told New York 4...

DATE: Sep 20, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Handling chronic pain without relying on opioids

Each year, more than 300 people take part in a program at the Pain Rehabilitation Center at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Their complaints range widely, from specific problems such as ...

DATE: Sep 19, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Cycling to work means better health and a longer life

A British medical journal published a study this spring that seemed to confirm what dedicated bicyclists had long suspected: Commuting on two wheels is really, really good for your health. ...

DATE: Sep 15, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

‘She gave me the ultimate gift’: Selena Gomez tells story of her kidney transplant

Selena Gomez dropped a bombshell on Instagram: The 25-year-old pop star had a kidney transplant earlier this summer, and the donor was a friend, actress Francia Raisa. The first photo in the...

DATE: Sep 14, 2017 | CATEGORY: Arts and Entertainment

Study prompts call to examine flu vaccine and miscarriage

NEW YORK – A puzzling study of U.S. pregnancies found that women who had miscarriages between 2010 and 2012 were more likely to have had back-to-back annual flu shots that included protectio...

DATE: Sep 13, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Hormone pills don’t shorten older women’s lives, study shows

CHICAGO – Taking hormone pills for several years after menopause didn’t shorten older women’s lifespans, according to the longest follow-up yet of landmark research that transformed thinking...

DATE: Sep 12, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Science says: Severe morning sickness is brutal, not dangerous

LONDON – Prince William and his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, are expecting their third child. And for the third time – as with her previous two pregnancies – the former Kate Middleton is ...

DATE: Sep 5, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

A first: Drug lowers heart risks by curbing inflammation

For the first time, a drug has helped prevent heart attacks by curbing inflammation, a new and very different approach than lowering cholesterol, the focus for many years. People ...

DATE: Aug 31, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

How to make that morning workout routine a reality

You’d probably love to be one of those people who consistently exercise after work. But life gets in the way – kids, work, social commitments – and your daily fitness routine goes out the wi...

DATE: Aug 30, 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