Letters to the Editor - The Durango Herald

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Is religious bigotry on the rise?

I wonder if anti-LDS hate is ramping up once again in America. We have two recent signs it is: the BYU-Colorado football game chants (“F*** you, Mormons”); and the Michigan LDS killings and ...

“Yes” on 1A: Protect services you rely on

Being born and raised here, I take pride in calling this community my lifelong home. Over the years, I’ve watched our county grow, our needs expand, and our costs increase. But one thing has...

DATE: Oct 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Durango schools betray parents' trust

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DATE: Oct 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Herald saves us with exclusive climate ‘breakthrough’

I was so happy that a recent letter writer pointed out that climate change is no longer a concern thanks to a 17-year-old who supposedly disproved the math behind it all (Herald, Oct. 5). I ...

DATE: Oct 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Film’s cautionary tale about free speech, education

A film presented at the Crested Butte Film Festival confirmed that the Trump administration is attacking free speech. "Mr. Nobody Against Putin" features a teacher in a small town in Russia...

DATE: Oct 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

'Charm' headline tone deaf to ranchers’ reality

Shame on you, Durango Herald, for the headline, “High Country Cattle Auction brings top-notch stock and country charm to Southwest Colorado,” (Herald, Oct. 1). If you think for one minute t...

DATE: Oct 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Brown, Parmenter, Petersen for caring, well-educated students

I served on the Durango School Board for nearly 8 years and have a solid understanding of the deep responsibility our community has to supporting public schools that are open and free for al...

DATE: Oct 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

The Code Rights Project is nonpartisan

In response to Mr. Skillen's letter (Herald, Oct. 5) regarding The Code Rights Project, there are a few important points to clarify. The Code Rights Project has taken no position on the prop...

DATE: Oct 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Sustain progress: Reelect Brown, Parmenter, Petersen

We are so lucky in Durango to have successful public schools, with a strong school board leading the way. We should all do everything we can to get our incumbents – Brown, Parmenter, and Pet...

DATE: Oct 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

You can’t pave over an eyesore

Yes, it's very nice to drive on the recently repaved Colorado 140 in and near Hesperus. And, no, it's not nice at all to drive by the junkyard across from the Hesperus Church. It's been ther...

DATE: Oct 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

Grasping for disproof in the age of settled science

A recent letter (Herald, Oct, 5) attempts to conflate the counterexample proposed by 17 year-old Hannah Cairo to the Mizohata-Takeuchi conjecture (a purely mathematical problem), with climat...

DATE: Oct 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

If we must fight, let us fight together

Disagreement has become division. No two-party system can fix what it has inadvertently caused. Economic hardship, poverty, cuts to health care and the burden undocumented immigration has pl...

DATE: Oct 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Letters to the Editor

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