Thank you - The Durango Herald

Thank you from Four Corners OB/GYN

To our medical assistants (Anas, Nikole, Cindy, Tosh), front office staff (Ruth, Errine, Brenda, Crystal, Katie), ultrasonographers (Tamara, Scarlett), administrator (Robin), physician assis...

DATE: Apr 14, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Local student grateful for health care workers

Dear doctors and nurses, My name is Abby and I appreciate you so much. We are learning about natural and human disasters. Thank you so much for still working every day to save liv...

DATE: Apr 14, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Thank you to Backcountry Experience

I wanted to say thank you to Backcountry Experience for helping my son out with his ski equipment and supporting his interest in video editing a couple of months back. I could not justify th...

DATE: Apr 7, 2020 | CATEGORY: Local News

Thank you to Sara and La Plata County Office

What a wonderful town I live in! I am 87 years old. I have a bad digestive problem. When the water on my street was turned off, due to a leak, I was in a panic. Not being able to flush my to...

DATE: Mar 31, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Thank you from Womenade

The Womenade Council would like to thank the donors for their support of our community. Despite not having the fundraising event, donors mailed funds to the Women’s Resource Center providing...

DATE: Mar 31, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Thank you from KDUR

I’m writing to extend a huge thank you to the wonderful artists and furniture makers throughout the Durango community who made items for KDUR’s Furniture As Art Auction fundraiser held March...

DATE: Mar 19, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Thank you to Durango residents

I’ve written to thank Durango residents Jared and Mike Rowe, and two others whose name I don’t know, for pulling us out of a sticky snow situation at Blue Mesa Reservoir this past week. ...

DATE: Mar 13, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

La Plata County Humane Society thanks the community for their support

La Plata County Humane Society directors, team members and board members would like to extend a very sincere thank you to the entire community for their overwhelming love and support during ...

DATE: Mar 5, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Happy Caregiver Appreciation Week from Comfort Keepers

The entire Comfort Keepers team would like to thank our dedicated, passionate, caring and big-hearted caregivers for all the hard work they do. Being a caregiver isn’t easy. Our clients beco...

DATE: Mar 5, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

Be sure to thank Chapman Hill staff

I hope the kids who ski Chapman Hill after school during the week appreciate what Tim Kuss and the staff have to do to make the snow surface ski as great as it does ... every day. ...

DATE: Mar 5, 2020 | CATEGORY: Local News

Manna grateful for donations

Manna soup kitchen would like to acknowledge Primus Restaurant and the Community Foundation Serving Southwest Colorado for selecting Manna to be recipient of the December and January Primus ...

DATE: Mar 5, 2020 | CATEGORY: Community

La Plata Council on Aging grateful to Ohana Physical Therapy

The La Plata Council on Aging, Inc. would like to thank Ohana Physical Therapy for its generous $100 donation to our Scholarship Program. This donation will support one participant in the Sc...

DATE: Feb 25, 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