Thank you - The Durango Herald

Durango Daybreak Rotary Club thanks community

The Durango Daybreak Rotary Club would like to thank the Durango community for their generous support of our recent Chip Huntoon Memorial Food Drive on Oct. 8. All food and cash donations w...

DATE: Oct 20, 2022 | CATEGORY: Community

Women’s Resource Center grateful for donation

The Women’s Resource Center was honored to have been chosen as the 2022 Columbine Classic Duet Golf beneficiary. This annual Ladies invitational golf tournament was held July 25 to July 27 a...

DATE: Sep 22, 2022 | CATEGORY: Community

DHS Class of 1997 thanks reunion supporters

A former Durango High School class recently celebrated their 50th reunion. We are grateful to our local community for making this possible. \ Thanks to the Animas Museum and Durango Fire and...

DATE: Sep 15, 2022 | CATEGORY: Community

Thank you from Great Old Broads for Wilderness

A sincere thank you to The Durango Herald and everyone who attended the Aug. 10 Secret Garden community concert. The garden was standing room only on a beautiful night under the trees featur...

DATE: Aug 17, 2022 | CATEGORY: Community

Farmers market thanks sponsors

Durango Farmers Market would like to offer an enormous thank you to our 2022 sponsors that offered their support to our market. TBK Bank continues to offer both the summer and November marke...

DATE: Jul 12, 2022 | CATEGORY: Community

Southwestern Colorado AHEC thanks supporters

We would like to thank the Telluride Foundation for their support of the 2022 SWCAHEC Health Careers Institute, impacting the lives of an amazing group of students interested in health care....

DATE: Jun 28, 2022 | CATEGORY: Community

Durango Botanic Gardens thanks sponsors, volunteers

On Saturday, June 25, Durango Botanic Gardens held its annual Gardens on Tour. This was our biggest year yet thanks to so many wonderful people. There were nine private gardens and the homeo...

DATE: Jun 28, 2022 | CATEGORY: Community

Garcia family thanks community

The family of Mario J. Garcia would like to express their sincere thank you for the support and sympathy we received after the sad and sudden loss of Mario. As it would be impossible to than...

DATE: Jun 28, 2022 | CATEGORY: Community

Durango Cowboy Poetry thanks community

On behalf of the Durango Cowboy Poetry Gathering, I would like to thank everyone who attended our eighth annual Outdoor Concert and Barn Dance on June 12 at the gorgeous River Bend Ranch. S...

DATE: Jun 21, 2022 | CATEGORY: Community

Friends of the Durango Public Library thanks community

Thanks to our community of book lovers, book readers and book donators for your continued support during the Friends of the Durango Public Library’s May 19 and 20 book sale. We are a volunte...

DATE: Jun 21, 2022 | CATEGORY: Community

Durango Botanic Gardens thanks Young Professionals of Durango

The Durango Botanic Gardens would like to thank the Young Professionals of Durango for their assistance on June 4. There were several tons of gravel that needed to be spread in our new Lite...

DATE: Jun 14, 2022 | CATEGORY: Community

Citizens Voice Durango thanks supporters

Dear Citizens and Supporters, Thank you! For helping to get the word out about our petition effort, for signing, for tabling, for walking neighborhoods and talking to residents and business ...

DATE: May 12, 2022 | 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