Travel and commuting - The Durango Herald

SpaceX aims to launch up to 4 tourists into super high orbit

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – SpaceX aims to launch up to four tourists into a super high orbit, possibly by the end of next year. The private company is working with Space Adventures In...

DATE: Feb 21, 2020 | CATEGORY: Travel

Santa Fe officials want daily flights to LA amid film boom

SANTA FE – Economic development officials are seeking the return of daily flights between Santa Fe and Los Angeles to support the ongoing growth of film production in New Mexico’s capital ci...

DATE: Feb 16, 2020 | CATEGORY: Business

How to get a travel company to respond to your complaint

Airlines, car rental companies and hotels claim that they’re responsive to customers’ problems, but who are they kidding? Too often, they answer your emails with pre-written responses and yo...

DATE: Feb 14, 2020 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

Global tourism takes major hit as virus halts Chinese travel

This should have been a good year for global tourism, with trade tensions gradually easing, certain economies growing and banner events like the Summer Olympics taking place in Tokyo. But th...

DATE: Feb 10, 2020 | CATEGORY: Travel

British Airways flight crosses Atlantic in less than 5 hours

For the first time in years, a commercial passenger plane has flown across the Atlantic in less than five hours. A British Airways flight landed early Sunday morning at Heathrow A...

DATE: Feb 10, 2020 | CATEGORY: Travel

Credit card benefits for travelers are vanishing – what can you do?

Don’t look now, but banks and their airline partners are slowly and quietly removing credit card benefits that travelers rely on. If you’re planning a trip soon, you might want to read your ...

DATE: Feb 10, 2020 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

It might be dry in town, but San Juan Mountains receive steady snowstorms

Purgatory Resort reported 11 inches in four days; more to come

DATE: Feb 7, 2020 | CATEGORY: Local News

Durango to Bayfield: U.S. Highway 160 sees high rate of crashes

Stretch is one of busiest traffic areas in La Plata County

DATE: Feb 7, 2020 | CATEGORY: Local News

Why your next vacation should be in Sicily

Where: Sicily When to go: If sunshine is more important than warmth, go in April. Or choose October if you’ll put up with a few showers in exchange for warmer temperatures. Summer...

DATE: Feb 3, 2020 | CATEGORY: Travel

Facial-recognition technology stokes privacy concerns

Before Santiago Gassó’s recent flight from Atlanta to Mexico City, a Delta Air Lines gate agent announced a new boarding procedure. Instead of showing an ID and receiving paper boarding pass...

DATE: Jan 31, 2020 | CATEGORY: The Travel Troubleshooter

Hotel design trends: Lobbies and rooms with a point of view

Designers of hotel spaces have traditionally tended to favor either theatrical flair (baroque finishes and opulent flourishes) or the opposite: a low-key insouciance consisting of neutral, c...

DATE: Jan 31, 2020 | CATEGORY: Travel

Photos: Spanish towns embrace peculiar old festivals

ACEHUCHE, Spain – Spain has a rich tradition of colorful, and sometimes bizarre, festivals. The best-known ones are in the summer, including running with bulls through the narrow ...

DATE: Jan 27, 2020 | CATEGORY: Travel

Photos: Durango High School boys golf competes at stateDemons finished 14th after two rounds at Fox Hill Club in Longmont

Demons finished 14th after two rounds at Fox Hill Club in Longmont

Photos: Cowboy Gathering Social and Parade

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