Newsletter - The Durango Herald

Body of climber from Durango recovered in Wyoming

Michael Sullivan fell 400 feet

DATE: Aug 31, 2017 | CATEGORY: Regional News

Irish Embassy Pub launches suicide awareness campaign

‘Clovers for Courage’ promotes random acts of kindness

DATE: Aug 31, 2017 | CATEGORY: Local News

Colorado High School Cycling League to bring 2018 championships to Durango

State meet shifts away from Eagle for first time in five years

DATE: Aug 31, 2017 | CATEGORY: High School Sports

Labor Day weekend events in Southwest Colorado

Friday Durango Downtown Sidewalk Sales: all-day event, Durango, www.downtowndurango.org/sidewalksales. Labor Day Weekend Celebration: 9 a.m., Sky Ute Casino Resort, 14...

DATE: Aug 31, 2017 | CATEGORY: Local News

Party down at Four Corners Folk Festival this weekend

Freddy & Francine taking stage with host of other bands

DATE: Aug 31, 2017 | CATEGORY: Music

Photos: St. Columba preschoolers dig garden dirt

DATE: Aug 31, 2017 | CATEGORY: Local News

Talk about town: La Plata County farms earn special state designation

Three La Plata County farms received Centennial Farm designation from History Colorado at the state fair on Friday. The Colorado Centennial Farms program recognizes the important...

DATE: Aug 31, 2017 | CATEGORY: Local News

Mesa Verde National Park launches podcast series

‘Mesa Verde Voices’ connects past, present

DATE: Aug 31, 2017 | CATEGORY: Local News

Dearth of fruit derails Apple Days, but you can donate excess produce for the needy

Editor’s note: Get Growing, written by the La Plata County Extension Office’s Master Gardener Program, appears during the growing season. It features timely tips and suggestions for your...

DATE: Aug 31, 2017 | CATEGORY: Get Growing

Obesity rates rising in Colorado, stabilizing elsewhere

Cooking Matters focusing on teaching local child caregivers healthy habits

DATE: Aug 31, 2017 | CATEGORY: Health

Ska Brewing uses humor to turn a bad hops contract into a beer

The year was 2014. The sun was shining, the flowers were blooming, and Ska Brewing was getting ready to introduce a new year-round beer, Rudie Session Ale, a 4.5 percent ABV IPA made with Ga...

DATE: Aug 31, 2017 | CATEGORY: Local News

Defenses shine Week 1 of Durango YAFL season

Durango’s young football players returned to the field last weekend, and it was a dominant start for two grades of Demons. The fifth-grade Durango Young America Football League te...

DATE: Aug 30, 2017 | CATEGORY: Youth Sports

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