Health - The Durango Herald

Drugs score big wins against lung, prostate, breast cancers

CHICAGO – Drugs are scoring big wins against common cancers, setting new standards for how to treat many prostate, breast and lung tumors. There’s even a “uni-drug” that may fight many forms...

DATE: Jun 6, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Poor posture at work? It’s time to straighten up

Forward head, slumping shoulders, tilted pelvis. Sound like the Hunchback of Notre Dame in 15th-century Paris? Maybe, or just your average Joe and Jane glued to their cellphones a...

DATE: May 31, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

More Americans with Alzheimer’s are dying at home, report says

NEW YORK – One in 4 Alzheimer’s deaths in the United States are now occurring at home – a startling increase that marks a shift away from hospitals and nursing homes, according to a report r...

DATE: May 30, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Popular new workouts target the body, mind and soul

NEW YORK – It would be easy to brush off fitness guru Taryn Toomey’s The Class as another hippie trend, but you’d miss the magic. (She sprinkled crushed crystals underneath the studio floors...

DATE: May 26, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Marijuana extract helps some kids with epilepsy, study says

A medicine made from marijuana, without the stuff that gives a high, cut seizures in kids with a severe form of epilepsy in a study that strengthens the case for more research into pot’s pos...

DATE: May 25, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

No food or drink will turn you into a calorie-burning machine. But these can help.

Some people envy others for their fine jewelry or luxury cars, I covet fast metabolisms. I am practically star-struck watching my friend’s lean 17-year-old son regularly plow through piles o...

DATE: May 24, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

The Metabolic Approach to Cancer takes on disease with food

Two Durango-based health professionals wrote book on cancer and nutrition

DATE: May 23, 2017 | CATEGORY: Food

Science says: Medications prevent opioid addiction relapse

CHICAGO – Remarks by a top U.S. health official have reignited a quarrel in the world of addiction and recovery: Does treating opioid addiction with medication save lives? Or does it trade o...

DATE: May 23, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Confused about what’s healthy? A new nutrition survey shows you’re not alone

If I asked you, “Who do you trust?” you would probably name a friend or family member – unless the topic is nutrition. Odds are your nearest and dearest are not your most trusted sources for...

DATE: May 22, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Heroin epidemic pushing up hepatitis C infections in U.S.

NEW YORK – The heroin epidemic is driving up hepatitis C infections, with the biggest increase in people in their 20s, U.S. health officials said this week. The number of new infe...

DATE: May 20, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Taking abortion pill at home as safe as in a clinic, study says

LONDON – Medical abortions done at home with online help and pills sent in the mail appear to be just as safe as those done at a clinic, according to a new study. The research tra...

DATE: May 19, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Women in 30s now having more babies than younger moms in U.S.

NEW YORK – For the first time, women in their early 30s are having more babies than younger moms in the United States. Health experts say the shift is attributable to more women w...

DATE: May 18, 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