Newsletter - The Durango Herald

Bayfield finishes fifth at Rocky Mountain Wrestling Tournament

Ignacio takes 11th, DHS struggles in Arvada

DATE: Jan 13, 2019 | CATEGORY: High School Sports

Planning chairwoman announces run for City Council

Kim Baxter served on Natural Lands Preservation, Multi-Modal Advisory boards

DATE: Jan 13, 2019 | CATEGORY: Local News

Child care shortage deepens in La Plata County

Parents disagree with closure of Children’s World

DATE: Jan 13, 2019 | CATEGORY: Local News

Animas High School examines two plans for a new home

Teachers, students, families offer input to refine designs

DATE: Jan 13, 2019 | CATEGORY: Local News

Weekly planner for Jan. 14-18

For more information and agendas about city meetings, visit Monday Natural Land Preservation Advisory Board meeting, 6 p.m., Durango Community Recreation Center, 2700 Main Ave. ...

DATE: Jan 13, 2019 | CATEGORY: Local News

2019 National Western is last chance to visit old stockyards

DENVER (AP) – The year was 1906, and there was no rodeo in sight. In the inaugural year of the National Western Stock Show, any display of roping and riding skill was still 25 years away. Th...

DATE: Jan 13, 2019 | CATEGORY: Regional News

Wildfires help habitat for northern Colorado bighorn sheep

BOULDER (AP) – After struggling for decades, the bighorn sheep population in the Big Thompson and St. Vrain canyons finally appears to be stabilizing. While it is difficult to pinpoint the e...

DATE: Jan 13, 2019 | CATEGORY: Southwest Life

U.S. Border Patrol Museum opens a world on the evolving agency

EL PASO, Texas – For many Mexican-Americans living near the U.S.-Mexico border, the U.S. Border Patrol was viewed as a federal government agency to be feared. Its agents might raid the facto...

DATE: Jan 13, 2019 | CATEGORY: Travel

No money to travel? Find places to stay for next to nothing

Credit card rewards can be your ticket – literally your plane ticket – to a dream destination. But even if you’ve earned what you need to get to where you’re going, the accommodations could ...

DATE: Jan 13, 2019 | CATEGORY: Travel

The Met’s ‘Adriana Lecouvreur’: A lesson in love triangles

When the real Adriana Lecouvreur died in Paris on March 30, 1730, she was only 37. Rumors spread that she had been poisoned by the Duchesse de Bouillon, her rival for the love of Maurice de ...

DATE: Jan 13, 2019 | CATEGORY: Music

Survey: Teens struggle with prolonged sadness

Data will inform prevention coalition goals in La Plata County

DATE: Jan 13, 2019 | CATEGORY: Local News

New federal magistrate takes over in Durango

James Candelaria was a federal prosecutor for 17 years

DATE: Jan 13, 2019 | 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