Newsletter - The Durango Herald

Durango City Council approves housing plan

Plan outlines strategies to encourage more affordable housing

DATE: Jan 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Prep Spotlight: Bayfield’s Beebe, Sandrey bring experience to Wolverines wrestling

Beebe, Sandrey each with 21 wins this season

DATE: Jan 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: High School Sports

Carrie Woodson announces candidacy for La Plata County Assessor’s Office

She wants to replace Craig Larson, who is retiring

DATE: Jan 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Vantiv acquires London ecommerce firm

Durango executive calls it ‘exciting opportunity’ for local office

DATE: Jan 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

La Michoacana El Oasis paletería opens on north Main

Greeted by the syncopation of spoken Spanish, brilliant pink colors accompanied by muted orange and cream tile work and a menu written in Spanish, stepping into La Michoacana El Oasis at 298...

DATE: Jan 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: Food

Rico gets new bus service to Telluride

New winter festival features hockey, snow events

DATE: Jan 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Shooting range approved to operate in La Plata County

Red Dawn Shooting offers variety of firearm classes

DATE: Jan 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Driver suspected of killing two pedestrians on Main Avenue in Durango pleads not guilty

Bobby Lehmann, 77, is scheduled for a two-day trial in April

DATE: Jan 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Only 2 customers remain without power on Florida Road, northeast of Durango

Car hit utility pole, initially knocking out electricity to more than 840 homes

DATE: Jan 15, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Photos: Fire danger remains high this winter

DATE: Jan 15, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Fort Lewis College students march to honor Martin Luther King Jr.

Almost 50 years after King’s death, work remains to end bigotry and racism

DATE: Jan 15, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Start planning your 2018 vacation now: Here are the best times to book flights

Congratulations, you survived another year of holiday travel. However, before you settle into your leather sectional and refuse to lift your “Complete Purchase” finger for another 316 days, ...

DATE: Jan 15, 2018 | CATEGORY: Travel

Photos: Cowboy Gathering Social and Parade

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