Health - The Durango Herald

Striking a chord, NIH taps the brain to find how music heals

WASHINGTON – Like a friendly Pied Piper, the violinist keeps up a toe-tapping beat as dancers weave through busy hospital hallways and into the chemotherapy unit, patients looking up in surp...

DATE: Dec 21, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Loneliness seems to damage health, triggering inflammation and neurological changes

Loneliness can tank your mood, but can it affect your health, too? All signs point to yes. It turns out that feeling lonely can do more than make you sad: It can predic...

DATE: Dec 20, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

A CDC ban on ‘fetus’ and ‘transgender’? Experts alarmed

NEW YORK – Health leaders say they are alarmed about a report that officials at the nation’s top public health agency are being told not to use certain words or phrases in official budget do...

DATE: Dec 19, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Dolores leukemia patient donates his art prize to injured student

Nick Lester’s artwork selected for Children’s Hospital holiday card

DATE: Dec 18, 2017 | CATEGORY: Local News

Researcher aims to stall deadly symptoms of rattlesnake bite

Doctor develops way to slow down spread of poison

DATE: Dec 18, 2017 | CATEGORY: Southwest Life

Q&A: How is the U.S. opioid crisis affecting children?

NEW YORK – Public attention to the historic wave of opioid addiction gripping the U.S. has focused mostly on its effect on adults and the thousands who have died of overdoses. Missed by much...

DATE: Dec 18, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Opioid crisis strains foster system as kids pried from homes

MARION, Ind. – She was first roused awake at 2:30 a.m. by a call seeking an emergency placement for a child. Ninety minutes later, it was a storm of texts telling of a problem at a foster ho...

DATE: Dec 17, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Deaths from window blinds show need for cord ban, study says

CHICAGO – Children’s injuries and deaths from window blinds have not stalled despite decades of safety concerns, according to a new U.S. study that recommends a complete ban on blinds with c...

DATE: Dec 16, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Blood test may help predict which breast cancers will recur

A blood test five years after breast cancer treatment helped identify some women who were more likely to relapse, long before a lump or other signs appeared, a preliminary study found. ...

DATE: Dec 14, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

New studies show that even light activity is healthier than previously thought

As if you needed another reason to make fitness your New Year’s resolution: Two recent mortality studies have produced evidence that exercise – even light activity such as vacuuming or walki...

DATE: Dec 13, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Are 3-D mammograms really better? U.S. puts scans to the test

WASHINGTON – A better mammogram? Increasingly women are asked if they want a 3-D mammogram instead of the regular X-ray – and now U.S. health officials are starting a huge study to tell if t...

DATE: Dec 12, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Mercy hospital opens hub for sports medicine

7,000-square-foot space to offer physical therapy, athletic training and exercise classes

DATE: Dec 12, 2017 | CATEGORY: Local News

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