Newsletter - The Durango Herald

Skyhawks Scoreboard: Fort Lewis College men’s soccer falls to third in RMAC with loss to Colorado Mines

Top two teams in RMAC collide

DATE: Oct 15, 2017 | CATEGORY: College Sports

Caption This!: ‘Are you sure this is how The Beatles did it?’

Herald Staff Report Durango Herald Facebook reader Shera Johnson sent in this week’s winning Caption This! headline: “Are you sure this is how The Beatles did it?” The ...

DATE: Oct 15, 2017 | CATEGORY: Local News

Do you need a timeshare? Listen to the pitch

9 million U.S. households have bought in

DATE: Oct 15, 2017 | CATEGORY: Travel

Study: Climate change is transforming local forests

Severe dry conditions, similar to 2002, could be norm by mid-century, study says

DATE: Oct 15, 2017 | CATEGORY: Southwest Life

Head Start forced to move out of building after asbestos discovered

Program to be closed for about a week while it moves to new spaces

DATE: Oct 15, 2017 | CATEGORY: Local News

Sheriff’s Office warns residents of recent phone scams

Fraudulent calls from ‘Sgt. McLaughlin’ should be reported

DATE: Oct 15, 2017 | CATEGORY: Local News

Battle against Russian olive trees waged for second year

Invasive plant chokes out native trees, harms watershed

DATE: Oct 14, 2017 | CATEGORY: Local News

Fort Lewis College ‘Shockhawks’ strike again in upset win against No. 12 CSU-Pueblo

FLC pulls off upset behind stingy defense

DATE: Oct 14, 2017 | CATEGORY: College Sports

On the Colorado Trail: Awed by the mountains for 500 miles

Halfway up the 3,300-foot climb through the muggy forest on the north side of Hope Pass, I was panting, sweat-soaked and pining for a pint. It seems every tiny mountain town in Co...

DATE: Oct 14, 2017 | CATEGORY: Travel

Four candidates enter race for Durango School District 9-R board

District A, C and E seats up for election in November

DATE: Oct 14, 2017 | CATEGORY: Local News

Durango Fire Chief Hal Doughty answers 5 questions about the property tax increase measure

Why do voters inside the city limits and county residents inside the fire district see two different questions? The city of Durango is not part of the fire district. They are prot...

DATE: Oct 14, 2017 | CATEGORY: Local News

New ownership transforming Days End into Motel Durango

Owners looking to clean up area around Junction Creek

DATE: Oct 14, 2017 | CATEGORY: Business

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