Letters to the Editor - The Durango Herald

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Community values: Welcoming or warding?

A common mindset I’ve encountered while speaking with longtime Durangoans and reading letters to the editor goes something like this: “I’ve lived here for 10, 20, or 30 years, and all these ...

In support of the 1% sales tax

Mr. Russ Smith (Herald, Sept. 17) and Mr. Jack Turner (Herald, July 27), and the Code Rights Project seem intent on gutting La Plata County’s land-use system so developers can get their way....

DATE: Oct 5, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

When enforcement looks lawless

How do we identify an ICE agent? This is what we’ve learned. Well … they wear face masks. Originally, they were described as ski masks, easy to put on and reasonably comfortable. Now, they l...

DATE: Oct 5, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

A musical and historical tribute to Durango’s 150 years

As a longtime fan of the Durango Choral Society, I have watched Carol Thurman’s composition, “Rivers, Rails and Roots – A Sesquicentennial Suite,” become reality over the last three years. S...

DATE: Oct 5, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

When climate models fail, families pay

For years, we were told to fear “global warming.” When our planet cooled, the slogan was rebranded as “climate change.” Meanwhile, the definition of “science” was bent to include computer mo...

DATE: Oct 5, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Vote ‘yes’ on 1A – invest in La Plata County

It has been 43 years since La Plata County last increased its sales tax. In that time, the county population has grown, costs have gone up and the responsibilities of local government have e...

DATE: Oct 5, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Retribution, not governance: Trump’s war on Democratic norms

The First Amendment guarantees Americans freedom of speech, religion and the press, “the right to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government to redress grievances.” The Trump adminis...

DATE: Oct 3, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Thanks to forest service workers and SJMA

I would like to thank those folks working and supporting our public lands. They have been going above and beyond the call of duty these last few months. I was quite worried about how our pub...

DATE: Oct 3, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Counting the ways Trump betrayed us

Trump betrayed us. He promised to end inflation on “Day One.” Instead, prices have gone up on virtually everything since the day he took office. We are only beginning to feel the pain of Tru...

DATE: Oct 3, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Why Girls on the Run matters

Girls on the Run is not a running club, or a track team. With a unique curriculum focused on cultivating confidence, critical thinking skills, and healthy mental and physical habits, the non...

DATE: Oct 1, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Sheriff and police chief missed the mark

It was great to see hundreds of people show up at the vigil to honor Charlie Kirk. However, Sheriff Smith and Chief Current both grossly misread the audience. Christians gathered to remembe...

DATE: Oct 1, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Big thanks to all our summer work crews

I’ve been meaning to write this for several weeks, and the photo of the crew painting stripes on the street got me off high center (Herald, Sept. 18). I want to express my gratitude to the w...

DATE: Oct 1, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

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