Health - The Durango Herald

Age is not the only risk for severe coronavirus disease

WASHINGTON – Older people remain most at risk of dying as the new coronavirus continues its rampage around the globe, but they’re far from the only ones vulnerable. One of many mysteries: Me...

DATE: Mar 30, 2020 | CATEGORY: Health

How would overwhelmed hospitals decide who to treat first?

NEW YORK – A nurse with asthma, a grandfather with cancer and a homeless man with no known family are wracked with coronavirus-induced fevers. They are struggling to breathe, and a ventilato...

DATE: Mar 30, 2020 | CATEGORY: Health

For seniors, isolation changes life in varied, nuanced ways

One remembers the polio epidemic and the hardships of World War II. One is stoic about it all – because, he says, he’s already “here past the welcome.” A third, old enough to remember the af...

DATE: Mar 27, 2020 | CATEGORY: Health

For nursing homes, symptoms aren’t enough to tell who’s sick

SEATTLE – An investigation at a Seattle-area nursing home concluded that symptoms aren’t enough to identify who is infected once the coronavirus enters a long-term care facility. ...

DATE: Mar 27, 2020 | CATEGORY: Health

They already had an anxiety disorder. Now comes a pandemic.

NEW YORK – At first, Jonathon Seidl wasn’t worried about the coronavirus despite his anxiety disorder. But that changed. The 33-year-old digital media strategist from Dallas, who ...

DATE: Mar 25, 2020 | CATEGORY: Health

Drugmaker backpedals on specialty status for COVID-19 drug

WASHINGTON – Facing public criticism, the maker of a promising coronavirus drug said Wednesday it will waive a special regulatory designation that could have allowed it to block competition ...

DATE: Mar 25, 2020 | CATEGORY: Health

Can blood from coronavirus survivors treat the newly ill?

WASHINGTON – Hospitals are gearing up to test if a century-old treatment used to fight off flu and measles outbreaks in the days before vaccines, and tried more recently against SARS and Ebo...

DATE: Mar 24, 2020 | CATEGORY: Health

Potential coronavirus treatment granted rare disease status

WASHINGTON – The pharmaceutical giant that makes a promising coronavirus drug has registered it as a rare disease treatment with U.S. regulators, a status that can potentially be worth milli...

DATE: Mar 24, 2020 | CATEGORY: Health

Malaria drugs’ promise for coronavirus spurs hope, shortages

Scientists warn about raising false hopes

DATE: Mar 23, 2020 | CATEGORY: Health

COVID-19 lung patterns show few clues for treating pneumonia

WASHINGTON – Scans of the lungs of the sickest COVID-19 patients show distinctive patterns of infection, but so far those clues offer little help in predicting which patients will pull throu...

DATE: Mar 23, 2020 | CATEGORY: Health

Loss of smell, taste, might signal pandemic virus infection

NEW YORK – A loss of smell or taste might be an early sign of infection with the pandemic virus, say medical experts who cite reports from several countries. It might even serve a...

DATE: Mar 23, 2020 | CATEGORY: Health

Mental health professionals share insight into coping with COVID-19

It has been more than two weeks since Gov. Jared Polis announced the first COVID-19 case in Colorado, and nearly two months since Washington state reported its first case. If time...

DATE: Mar 22, 2020 | CATEGORY: Pine River Times news

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