HELENA - Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jon Tester never had a state-required license for the butchering business he ran at his Big Sandy-area farm, but state records show an inspector visited the shop, but did not cite Tester for breaking the law.

Tester cut meat on an outbuilding on his family farm beginning in the late 1970s. He took the butcher business over from his father, Tester said, who first started cutting meat in the family's basement in the 1950s to make extra money. Tester took the business over after he and his wife assumed the family farm, he said, and realized they couldn't make enough money farming.

Tester said his father never had a license and he didn't realize he needed a license, either.

Failure to have a license for the kind of custom butchering Tester did is a misdemeanor, according to state law, punishable by a $500 fine. However, Tester said several inspectors had come to look at the place over the years and he was never cited, fined or told to get a license.