Thank you - The Durango Herald

Fire marshal, instructor and ranch collaborate to offer fire investigation training

I would like the community to know about an opportunity the Durango Fire Protection District has undertaken. Under the leadership of Fire Marshal Karola Hanks, five members of the Durango Fi...

DATE: Apr 23, 2021 | CATEGORY: Community Voices

Local residents grateful for vaccine

Thank you, Karen Zink, Anne Markward, Doug Walker, Charley Kier, Karen Midkiff and the 300 to 400 volunteers who saw the need and organized the COVID-19 vaccination program at the fairground...

DATE: Apr 16, 2021 | CATEGORY: Community Voices

Smith family grateful to Aspen Tree Veterinary

We just want to thank Dr. Jenn and all of the staff at Aspen Tree Veterinary for the compassionate and thorough care they gave to our little dachshund, Dobby. Dobby got sick very...

DATE: Apr 9, 2021 | CATEGORY: Community Voices

Pine River Shares grateful for supporter

Pine River Shares owes our supporters a debt of gratitude. In 2020, we provided food to over 500 adults and 120 students every week. We purchased goods directly from over a dozen ...

DATE: Mar 19, 2021 | CATEGORY: Community

Daybreak Rotary of Durango grateful to supporters

Daybreak Rotary of Durango wishes to thank Jim Duke, Lonnie Scholton and the Target Rental staff for their ongoing support of the Rotary Community Wood Bank program. Last year, w...

DATE: Mar 19, 2021 | CATEGORY: Community

Great job to SJBH and the volunteers

I received the vaccine March 6 at the Fairgrounds. A fantastic group of people were volunteering. Thank you all for all your consideration and hard work. What a great inspiration. ...

DATE: Mar 12, 2021 | CATEGORY: Community

San Juan Basin Alzheimer’s and Dementia Initiative director grateful for community

As the Southern Colorado Regional Director of the Alzheimer’s Association, I want to express my sincere thanks to all of the community partners, caregivers and people living with dementia wh...

DATE: Mar 5, 2021 | CATEGORY: Community

Local resident grateful for vaccine and volunteers

I had my second COVID-19 vaccination last Saturday. Both times I arrived at the fairgrounds to an orderly and very friendly undertaking that made the experience so fast and easy. There were ...

DATE: Feb 26, 2021 | CATEGORY: Community

Local resident grateful for COVID-19 vaccinations

My husband and I received our second Pfizer vaccinations last Saturday morning from Axis Healthcare at Bodo Park. Our experience in getting both shots could not have been better organized or...

DATE: Feb 19, 2021 | CATEGORY: Community

Library Advisory Board thanks Rachel Turiel, Salye Stein

The Library Advisory Board of the Durango Public Library thanks Rachel Turiel and Salye Stein for their service on the board. Turiel served two terms, a total of six years, and w...

DATE: Feb 16, 2021 | CATEGORY: Community

Community members grateful to vaccine volunteers

My husband and I were fortunate enough to receive our first COVID-19 vaccine at the La Plata County Fairgrounds on Jan. 30. Oh my! What an amazing event that was organized for all of us. Fro...

DATE: Feb 16, 2021 | CATEGORY: Community

Thank you from the Jenners

I want to give a big thank you and a large amount of gratitude to everyone at the COVID-19 vaccine event Jan. 30. It was so organized and unbelievably thorough. Everyone was compassionate an...

DATE: Feb 5, 2021 | CATEGORY: Community

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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