Thank you - The Durango Herald

Expressing gratitude for a wonderful community addition

To: Citizens, visitors, Parks & Recreation Advisory Board, Durango Parks & Recreation Department and Durango City Council. I am writing this letter on behalf of the entire pickleball communi...

DATE: Sep 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Community

Durango brings out the best in people

I don’t know what it is about Durango that brings out the best in people, at least during the several times a year we visit. On Saturday Aug. 9, while we dined with our two grown daughters ...

DATE: Sep 4, 2025 | CATEGORY: Community

Thanks to Vitality Walk for Parkinsons supporters

Thanks to all who helped make our first annual Vitality Walk for Parkinsons a big success: Dr. Natalie Gould, Integrated Medicine and Osteopath for being our sponsor; family and friends for ...

DATE: Aug 15, 2025 | CATEGORY: Community

Thanks to sponsors of Rotary’s All-American 4th of July Breakfast

The Rotary Clubs of Durango: Daybreak and Evening are so grateful for the wonderful turnout of breakfast customers and for the generosity of sponsors. This fundraising event is honored to be...

DATE: Jul 10, 2025 | CATEGORY: Community

Durango Botanic Gardens thanks community

The 2025 Gardens on Tour, hosted by the Durango Botanic Gardens, was held on June 21. We want to thank the seven private homeowners and the Durango Hot Springs for opening their amazing gard...

DATE: Jul 2, 2025 | CATEGORY: Community

Botanic Gardens thanks supporters of conference

The Durango Botanic Gardens wishes to thank the 162 people who attended our Envisioning a Changing DurangoScape 2025, on March 21 and 22. The conference projected anticipated changes in the...

DATE: Apr 16, 2025 | CATEGORY: Community

KDUR Cover Night fundraiser a success

A number of years ago, an old friend critiqued Durango’s music scene, insisting that what happens here musically is subpar to just about anywhere. I disagreed then, and I’ll disagree now. Es...

DATE: Feb 26, 2025 | CATEGORY: Community

Durango Special Olympics grateful for support

Durango Special Olympics would like to thank these groups and individuals for their financial and in-kind support of their donation campaign for their 2023 and 2024 sport seasons. The money ...

DATE: Jan 2, 2025 | CATEGORY: Community

Methodist Women grateful for bazaar support

November’s 50th Methodist Women’s Bazaar at Summit Church is now history, but its spirit lives on through the proceeds that benefit charitable causes in the community and mission beyond. It ...

DATE: Nov 28, 2024 | CATEGORY: Community

Durango Dementia Coalition thankful for support

The Durango Dementia Coalition thanks Brandon Mencini and CommonSpirit Mercy Hospital for supporting and collaborating with our advocacy work improving care and services for those with demen...

DATE: Nov 13, 2024 | CATEGORY: Community

Rotary Club of Durango grateful for support

The Rotary Club of Durango Daybreak would like to sincerely thank the Durango community for their generous support of our recent Chip Huntoon Memorial Food Drive on Oct. 12. All food and cas...

DATE: Oct 31, 2024 | CATEGORY: Community

Durango angel on the Animas River Trail

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the female doctor that assisted my husband and I when he had an e-bike accident on the Animas River Trail on Aug. 17. I really wish I had gotte...

DATE: Aug 30, 2024 | CATEGORY: Community

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
Next ›

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