Newsletter - The Durango Herald

A direct line to the past: The vintage streetcars of San Francisco

When Rick Laubscher was 6 years old, he rode a streetcar to the circus. The San Francisco native is pretty sure he saw the lions and tigers and all that comes with it, but he wasn’t left wit...

DATE: Dec 22, 2018 | CATEGORY: Travel

White Mesa Mill accepts Cherokee Nation radioactive waste

But shipment upsets Ute Mountain Utes, environmentalists

DATE: Dec 22, 2018 | CATEGORY: Southwest Life

Garbage heap yields clues about city’s past

Trash from Colorado Springs’ founder, William Jackson Palmer, reveals how wealthy lived

DATE: Dec 22, 2018 | CATEGORY: Southwest Life

Annual federal survey identifies 40 homeless residents in La Plata County

Housing director says it doesn’t fully represent issue

DATE: Dec 22, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Ignacio picks up win over Mancos

Durango wrestlers battered by illness, injury

DATE: Dec 21, 2018 | CATEGORY: High School Sports

Fort Lewis College football signs two transfers from Division I schools

Skyhawks sign quarterback, defensive back

DATE: Dec 21, 2018 | CATEGORY: College Sports

How Colorado became a major exporter of black market marijuana

Officials expected legalizing it would have reverse effect

DATE: Dec 21, 2018 | CATEGORY: Regional News

Gov.-elect Jared Polis names first round of Cabinet picks

Some from Hickenlooper administration will remain

DATE: Dec 21, 2018 | CATEGORY: Regional News

City of Durango announces holiday closures

The city of Durango has announced schedules for the upcoming holiday. City Administrative Offices will be closed Monday and Tuesday, including offices at City Hall, River City ...

DATE: Dec 21, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Durango woman chosen to head Colorado’s agriculture department

Gov.-elect Jared Polis has tapped Durango resident Kate Greenberg, who serves as the Western Program director for National Young Farmers Coalition, to head the state’s Department of Agricult...

DATE: Dec 21, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Bennet’s drought, forest health provisions signed into law

Farm bill includes provisions to address Colorado’s needs

DATE: Dec 21, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

San Juan Mountain Association breaks fundraising record

The nonprofit sold about 700 Christmas trees and raised about $30,000

DATE: Dec 21, 2018 | 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