Opinion Columns - The Durango Herald

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2026 legislative preview: Affordable homes, rural health care and community education

With the 2026 legislative session a little over three months away, my work preparing new bills for next session is ramping up. I’d like to give an overview of what I’m building right now, bu...

DATE: Oct 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Energy security starts at home: Why Colorado families should invest in tech now

When natural gas prices doubled after Russia invaded Ukraine, Colorado families saw their heating bills spike by hundreds of dollars. But not everyone felt the pain equally. Families who had...

DATE: Oct 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Our civic duty: Don’t let journalism’s light go out

I was eight years old in the mid-20th century when a family friend asked me, “Billy – What do you want to be when you grow up?” Without a moment’s hesitation, I responded, “I want to be a ne...

DATE: Oct 12, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

The apocalypse is nigh, but not how you might think

I have previously written a column on stone skipping and one on sport ethics. It is a sad day indeed to now have to combine the two. This is further evidence that the apocalypse is near. Sca...

DATE: Oct 10, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

An Orwellian time: When fiction becomes our reality

During a sleepless night, fretting about the destruction of our country, I had a series of recollections. My memories include living images of John Kennedy, Martin Luther King, and Robert Ke...

DATE: Oct 8, 2025 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Defending free speech means standing firm – even when it’s politically unpopular

The Founders may not have intentionally put the First Amendment first in the Bill of Rights, but they treated it as the foundation of self-government. Without the freedom to speak and publis...

DATE: Oct 5, 2025 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

The Trump administration is waging a systematic assault on First Amendment

The First Amendment is not merely ink on parchment – it is America’s covenant with itself. It ensures no leader can dictate what we say, publish, teach or worship. Yet, in 2025, Donald Trump...

DATE: Oct 5, 2025 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Talent is everywhere, opportunity is not

When 15-year-old Alex picked up a welding torch at our Behind the Drywall summer institute, he wasn’t just learning a trade; he was discovering a career he had never imagined for himself. As...

DATE: Oct 5, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

H. Jackson Clark II: A kind heart with open hands wove the best of us together

As we get older, we naturally consider our life’s impact on the world we live in. What is our lasting legacy in the eyes of the people around us? This is an easy question to answer for H. J...

DATE: Oct 3, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

Voluntary family planning: the most effective, humane and least expensive way to address ecological overshoot

I was driving up Main Avenue, listening to a book and looking for the eye doctor’s office where I had an appointment. I glanced at the clock and realized that I was almost late – then I real...

DATE: Oct 1, 2025 | CATEGORY: Guest Columns

Exploring the world differently: My experience traveling with dementia

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DATE: Sep 28, 2025 | CATEGORY: Opinion

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