Thank you - The Durango Herald

Durango Botanic Gardens grateful for president

Durango Botanic Gardens, formerly known as the Durango Botanical Society, wishes to thank John Anderson for his service as president of the organization for the past three years. ...

DATE: Nov 6, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Local resident grateful to church program

A grateful thank you to the First Presbyterian Church at 1159 East Third Ave. in Durango for providing ambulatory medical equipment, free of charge, to individuals experiencing temporary ill...

DATE: Oct 30, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Durango Farmers Market thanks sponsorship partners

Durango Farmers Market would like to offer an enormous thank you to our 2020 sponsors that offered their support to our market in this topsy-turvy year! TBK Bank continues to offe...

DATE: Oct 23, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Durango Daybreak Rotary Club grateful to partners and donors

The Durango Daybreak Rotary Club would like to thank the following groups for their support of our recent Chip Huntoon Memorial Food Drive to benefit Manna. Thanks to The Wells G...

DATE: Oct 23, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Comfort Keepers grateful to partners

Comfort Keepers and the Caregiver Learning Academy would like to thank Marcy Jung and AAUW for allowing us to be a part of last month’s free community event “Caregivers Need Care, Too.” ...

DATE: Oct 23, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Thank you to a young man named Jack

The spark of human kindness is alive and well in Durango. I want to thank you, Jack, for your help. As I was driving to work, the route is from Pagosa Springs to Durango, I found...

DATE: Oct 16, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Purple Cliffs campers grateful to city and county

Our thanks to Commissioners Clyde Church and Gwen Lachelt, who voted to allow our continued use of Purple Cliffs. Thank you to NINA, CCO, The Vineyard Church and other supporters who made it...

DATE: Oct 8, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Local resident grateful to organizations and community members

I have been a volunteer at Manna soup kitchen since it moved to its current location. I am writing to thank all those who have helped the clients there and the city of Durango. T...

DATE: Sep 29, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Womenade Council grateful to donors

The Womenade Council is sincerely grateful to donors for their generosity toward women in our community. The September Womenade fundraiser helped five women with one-time grants needed for n...

DATE: Sep 29, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Customer grateful to employees

I want to thank the efforts of the customer service team at Walmart for helping me out with the problem I have with the Durango Transit bus stop. Thank you, Sherry and Tina, for your excepti...

DATE: Sep 11, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Arboles resident grateful for drive-in movie series

Thank you so much, Durango, for your drive-in movie series. My daughter and I went to see “Jurassic Park” on Friday night. It was the most fun that I’ve had since March. Kudos to...

DATE: Sep 4, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Thank you from The Community Foundation serving Southwest Colorado

The Community Foundation serving Southwest Colorado would like to express our immense gratitude to all the businesses, individuals, foundations and family funds that donated to the Community...

DATE: Sep 4, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

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