Thank you - The Durango Herald

Thank you from the Cianci family

The family of the late June Cianci wishes to express their deep appreciation to those who have offered such kindness, support and messages of sympathy and comfort in our bereavement. ...

DATE: Nov 21, 2019 | CATEGORY: Community

Durango Friends of the Arts grateful to Toh-Atin Gallery

Durango Friends of the Arts would like to thank Toh-Atin Gallery in Durango for hosting the Nov. 14 membership meeting. After a short business meeting, DFA members enjoyed a rive...

DATE: Nov 21, 2019 | CATEGORY: Community

Emblem Club grateful to sponsors and donors

Durango Emblem Club No. 131 would like to thank everyone involved for the success of the Dudley Engle Memorial Golf Tournament. We were able to raise a substantial amount for our charities, ...

DATE: Nov 21, 2019 | CATEGORY: Community

Durango Botanical Society grateful for community support

The Durango Botanical Society wishes to thank the community for making our ninth annual Bulb Sale a success. Your dedication to buying and planting the bulbs ensures your gardens and our com...

DATE: Nov 21, 2019 | CATEGORY: Community

LPCHS thanks community for Bark & Wine Fundraiser

The La Plata County Humane Society would like to thank everyone who attended the 12th annual Bark & Wine Fundraiser on Nov. 9 at Fort Lewis College. We would like to express our ...

DATE: Nov 21, 2019 | CATEGORY: Community

Free Bag, Bag Free grateful to donors and volunteers

The Free Bag,Bag Free project would like to thank donors and volunteers who have helped them turn T-shirts headed to a landfill into 2,600 reusable shopping bags that are given away for free...

DATE: Nov 12, 2019 | CATEGORY: Community

Cancer Coalition of Southwest Colorado grateful to donors

For the past 18 years, with help from groups such as Durango’s Styles ‘N’ Stones artists, the Cancer Coalition of Southwest Colorado has been able to financially assist local residents in ca...

DATE: Nov 7, 2019 | CATEGORY: Community

Thank you from Know Your Dough

Know Your Dough, a nonprofit that provides tailored, in-person financial wellness programs for local youth, would like to thank Consumers United Association for graciously sponsoring The Mon...

DATE: Nov 7, 2019 | CATEGORY: Community

Thank you to Rocky Horror Show

The curtain is closed, the play begins, music is heard, so clear, so clean, so pure it must be a recording. No, it’s the band for the Rocky Horror Show at the Henry Strater Theatre. And it o...

DATE: Nov 7, 2019 | CATEGORY: Community

Zink family grateful to community

Where do we begin to express our appreciation and gratitude to the community as we grieve the sudden loss of father, brother, brother-in-law, husband, grandfather, great grandfather, uncle, ...

DATE: Oct 31, 2019 | CATEGORY: Community

Thank you from Durango Public Library Advisory Board

The Library Advisory Board of the Durango Public Library appreciates a generous donation from Dean Brookie, city councilor and council liaison to the LAB, to the board’s Library Community Ch...

DATE: Oct 31, 2019 | CATEGORY: Community

Bayfield Heritage Days and Sheep Trailing grateful for community support

The 20th anniversary Bayfield Heritage Days and Sheep Trailing on Sept. 27-28 was a great success. The Friday night dinner with the Bar-D Wranglers was a sell-out fundraiser for the Pine Riv...

DATE: Oct 31, 2019 | 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