Newsletter - The Durango Herald

Sheriff candidates tout experience and emphasize leadership abilities

Dean Mize, Charles Hamby and incumbent Sean Smith are all vying for position

DATE: Oct 14, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Leader of DU’s school of social work campus in Durango to retire

Wanda Ellingson helped found the program

DATE: Oct 14, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

General Election ballots will be mailed Monday

Early birds have been requesting absentee ballots

DATE: Oct 14, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Agencies to work on Twin Buttes prescribed burn

Durango Parks and Recreation Department is working with Durango Fire Protection District and Twin Buttes to complete a prescribed burn in the Twin Buttes open space starting Tuesday and con...

DATE: Oct 14, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Fort Collins seed vault preserves world collection of plants

FORT COLLINS (AP) – As climate change jeopardizes the world’s doomsday seed vault near the North Pole, a similar Fort Collins facility continues to stock up its collection. The mo...

DATE: Oct 14, 2018 | CATEGORY: Southwest Life

See the world in your 20s without racking up debt

It’s a dilemma many 20-somethings face: You badly want to travel the world. But if your bank account could talk, it would say, “Are you kidding?” When you’re just starting out, ev...

DATE: Oct 14, 2018 | CATEGORY: Travel

PCC to close cosmetology program at Southwest campus

The cosmetology program at Pueblo Community College Southwest in Mancos will close in May 2019. The school cut the program because of low enrollment and unsustainable jobs in the ...

DATE: Oct 14, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Disposal fees jump up at Montezuma County landfill

Looming closure costs cited; new rates favor recyclers

DATE: Oct 14, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Stapleton, Polis meet in Colorado gubernatorial debate

DENVER – Republican Treasurer Walker Stapleton and Democratic U.S. Rep. Jared Polis clashed again Saturday over health care, guns and Colorado’s energy future in the fifth one-on-one debate ...

DATE: Oct 13, 2018 | CATEGORY: Regional News

No. 9 Colorado School of Mines passes Fort Lewis College with 42 unanswered points

Oliver sets RMAC record on four touchdown day

DATE: Oct 13, 2018 | CATEGORY: College Sports

Durango Demons go on road, stuff Pueblo Central

Defense gets two interceptions and safety in 24-6 win

DATE: Oct 13, 2018 | CATEGORY: High School Sports

The Woolly West: ‘Sheepscapes’ tell the story of sheepherding in Colorado

Everybody writes about cowboys. Nobody writes about sheepherders. Of the hundreds of books written about cowboys and cowboying in the American West, there are few volumes on shee...

DATE: Oct 13, 2018 | CATEGORY: Gulliford's Travels

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