Newsletter - The Durango Herald

Recall petitions circulating against Los Pinos Fire board

Former Chief Larry Behrens returning to take helm

DATE: Dec 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Customs officers search more travelers’ devices

NEW YORK – U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers are searching the electronic devices of travelers more often and did not always follow proper protocol, a new watchdog report has found...

DATE: Dec 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: Travel

Climate change hitting Southwest, national reports says

Declining snowpack raises wildfire threat

DATE: Dec 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: Southwest Life

Stillwater Music students to show off skills at ‘Winter Wonder Bands’ gala

Stillwater Music hosts its annual ‘Winter Wonder Bands’ gala

DATE: Dec 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: Music

Rico is awarded two transportation grants

Station, new bus will serve public

DATE: Dec 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Crow Canyon, Hopi announce project on ancient maize research

The Research Institute at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center is teaming up with the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office on a collaborative project that will look at what can be learned from...

DATE: Dec 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

South Dakota Mines rocks Fort Lewis College in overtime

FLC went 0-6 shooting in OT

DATE: Dec 16, 2018 | CATEGORY: College Sports

Interior Secretary Zinke resigning, cites ‘vicious’ attacks

Investigators reviewing land deal and redrawing of national monument boundaries

DATE: Dec 15, 2018 | CATEGORY: Regional News

Team relay decides fate of Fort Lewis College, Marian at cyclocross nationals

Skyhawks come up shy of 25th title

DATE: Dec 15, 2018 | CATEGORY: College Sports

Cortez adopts $32.87M budget

Fiber spending down, water infrastructure spending up

DATE: Dec 15, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Fort Lewis College graduates to embrace the unknown

Almost 200 graduated on Saturday

DATE: Dec 15, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

In the Bahamas, Cat Island offers spectacular diving and solitude for miles

Sometimes, a shift in perspective makes all the difference. I am 100 feet deep in a Bahamian sea, finning along a reef wall that plunges like a waterfall of color into the blue d...

DATE: Dec 15, 2018 | CATEGORY: Travel

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