Travel and commuting - The Durango Herald

How to make summer 2022 travel plans that actually happen

After two years of cancellations, deferments and marathon sessions with airline customer service, many travelers are hoping to book summer trips that actually pan out this year. “I had the ...

DATE: Apr 18, 2022 | CATEGORY: Travel

6 ways technology is evolving travel in 2022

For the athletes at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, travel entailed ... robots. Everywhere. These machines prepared and served noodles, rice and burgers, and roamed hallways to take the...

DATE: Mar 7, 2022 | CATEGORY: Travel

Cortez wants Denver Air to be its next airline carrier

Southern Airways Express also is a candidate to replace Boutique

DATE: Mar 1, 2022 | CATEGORY: Local News

Road trip with a dog? Tips for making you both happy

Expect the trip to take longer

DATE: Feb 28, 2022 | CATEGORY: Travel

Stonehenge through the ages: Exhibit brings builders to life

LONDON – For a monument that has been drawing crowds for thousands of years, Stonehenge still holds many secrets. The stone circle, whose giant pillars each took 1,000 people to move, was er...

DATE: Feb 21, 2022 | CATEGORY: Travel

Winter weather could bring feet of snow to parts of Southwest Colorado

Wolf Creek Pass could see up to 50 inches

DATE: Feb 21, 2022 | CATEGORY: Local News

Travel groups want to scrap testing requirement to enter U.S.

DALLAS – Airline and tourism groups are pushing to eliminate the government requirement that international travelers provide a negative test for COVID-19 before boarding a U.S.-bound plane. ...

DATE: Feb 7, 2022 | CATEGORY: Travel

Durango to host Winter Bike to Work Day

City invites businesses to compete for most sustainable commuters

DATE: Jan 31, 2022 | CATEGORY: Local News

Durango-La Plata County Airport meets expectations, sets record for passenger travel

2021 trends expected to carry over into 2022

DATE: Jan 27, 2022 | CATEGORY: Local News

Cancellations, delays mount at Durango-La Plata County Airport

Flight impacts sweeping across country have hit DRO in the new year

DATE: Jan 3, 2022 | CATEGORY: Local News

Snow disrupts holiday travels across Southwest Colorado

Mountain passes make travel in and out of Durango slow

DATE: Dec 28, 2021 | CATEGORY: Local News

Bustling bars, surging business: Dubai sees a post-vax boom

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Nations around the world are lurching into lockdown, steeling themselves for a brutal surge as the omicron variant spreads like wildfire.

DATE: Dec 25, 2021 | CATEGORY: Travel

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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