Newsletter - The Durango Herald

Durango Brewing Co. closes taproom, fires employees, moves to La Junta

Owners said a remodel in 2015 didn’t help business

DATE: Aug 14, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Treasurer Allison Aichele has 10 days to explain mistakes in 2014 campaign finance filings

State orders further investigation after opponent filed complaint

DATE: Aug 14, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Bull Draw Fire climbs to 21,790 acres, pushes southeast

Crews get a break as fire slows on west side

DATE: Aug 14, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Colorado law to hold large internet companies accountable

State to invest $18.7 million in rural broadband in 2019

DATE: Aug 14, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Mancos Town Board hears plan to replace water tank

The Mancos Town Board meeting Wednesday featured a workshop followed by discussion and action items in several different areas, including a decision to move forward with a project to replace...

DATE: Aug 14, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Attorney general candidate: Sue when you must, but first look for solutions

Phil Weiser would go after maker of OxyContin, work to reform ‘dark money’

DATE: Aug 13, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Plans for prescribed burns put on hold in fire-fatigued Southwest Colorado

U.S. Forest Service say conditions too dangerous

DATE: Aug 13, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Full containment of Plateau Fire expected later this month

16,390-acre blaze six miles north of Dolores has cost $3 million

DATE: Aug 13, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Eli Tomac will head Team USA in Motocross of Nations

Americans Barcia and Plessinger also will represent U.S.

DATE: Aug 13, 2018 | CATEGORY: Professional Sports

Governors say ban on land deals could hurt beleaguered greater sage grouse

DENVER – Some governors in the U.S. West say a new Trump administration directive threatens to undermine a hard-won compromise aimed at saving a beleaguered bird scattered across their regio...

DATE: Aug 13, 2018 | CATEGORY: Regional News

Jury selection underway for two murder trials in Durango

Michael Jones and Silvino Martinez-Perez charged in separate incidents

DATE: Aug 13, 2018 | CATEGORY: Local News

Franken-fauna only threatens gardens, not health

Here’s a photo of a deer taken north of town. Yikes! Do you suppose this deer has been camping on our uranium mill tailings or lapping up heavy metals from the Animas River? Sign me, “The Ve...

DATE: Aug 13, 2018 | CATEGORY: Action Line

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