Health - The Durango Herald

Hearing is believing: Speech may be a clue to mental decline

Your speech may, um, help reveal if you’re uh ... developing thinking problems. More pauses, filler words and other verbal changes might be an early sign of mental decline, which can lead to...

DATE: Jul 18, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Tumor gene testing urged to tell if drug targets your cancer

WASHINGTON – Colon cancer. Uterine cancer. Pancreatic cancer. Whatever the tumor, the more gene mutations lurking inside, the better chance your immune system has to fight back. T...

DATE: Jul 17, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Novel leukemia treatment could be 1st U.S. gene therapy

A treatment for a common childhood blood cancer could become the first gene therapy available in the U.S. A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted 10-0 on Wednesday in ...

DATE: Jul 15, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Colorado health insurance rates may go up 27 percent next year

Uncertainty about Affordable Care Act driving changes

DATE: Jul 14, 2017 | CATEGORY: Regional News

How severe, ongoing stress can affect a child’s brain

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – A quiet, unsmiling little girl with big brown eyes crawls inside a carpeted cubicle, hugs a stuffed teddy bear tight, and turns her head away from the noisy classroom. ...

DATE: Jul 13, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Science Says: Not all cancers need treatment right away

The biopsy shows cancer, so you have to act fast, right? Not necessarily, if it’s a prostate tumor. Men increasingly have choices if their cancer is found at an early stage, as mo...

DATE: Jul 12, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Opioid prescribing is falling in the U.S., but not everywhere

NEW YORK – Overall opioid prescription rates have been falling in recent years, but the powerful drugs have become more plentiful in more than than 1 in 5 U.S. counties, a report released Th...

DATE: Jul 11, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Not reaching your wellness goals? Take a look at your nighttime routine

We all think our day starts when we wake up. But what if the day really starts the evening before? Why does it matter? When you create an ideal nighttime routine, it is far more l...

DATE: Jul 4, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Hints of some steps that may boost brain health in old age

WASHINGTON – Are you seeking steps to keep your brain healthy in old age? There are no proven ways to stave off mental decline or dementia, but a new report says there are hints t...

DATE: Jun 27, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Drug shows promise against vision-robbing disease in seniors

WASHINGTON – An experimental drug is showing promise against an untreatable eye disease that blinds older adults – and intriguingly, it seems to work in patients who carry a particular gene ...

DATE: Jun 25, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

No longer the hot new thing? Teen vaping falls, study says

NEW YORK – Teen vaping, which has been skyrocketing, fell dramatically last year in the United States. A government survey released Thursday suggests the number of high school and...

DATE: Jun 23, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Few opioid-addicted youth get standard treatment medication

CHICAGO – Only 1 in 4 teens and young adults with opioid addiction receive recommended treatment medication despite having good health insurance, according to a study that suggests doctors a...

DATE: Jun 22, 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