Unlicensed beef dealer fined: An Ontario beef dealer is on the hook for $15,000 after he was convicted last week of buying cattle in 2007 without a licence. Richard (Butch) Clare of Burford, Ont. was convicted at trial Oct. 9, along with two numbered Ontario companies, one of which operated under the name Butch Clare Livestock. The same businessman was convicted in 2007 of selling meat unfit for human consumption after investigators found he was selling uninspected meat produced from deadstock at his Alymer, Ont. plant. The slaughter plant no longer operates.

Storm day:

Maple Leaf Foods cancelled two shifts at its Brandon, Manitoba plant as the blizzard prevented delivery of hogs earlier this week. The company was expected to make up the shifts later in the week, said company spokeswoman Jeanette Jones. “There would be a minimal impact at this point,” she said. The storm also caused some minor disruptions in grain-handling schedules, mainly because elevator staff couldn’t get to work.

Homegrown:

Russia, which has effectively banned U. S. chickens, plans to stop importing poultry altogether within three years, its farm minister said Jan. 25. Russia’s billion-dollar drive to cut dependency on chicken imports has concerned major foreign suppliers such as the United States, which earns about $800 million selling poultry to its biggest export market. Agriculture Minister Yelena Skrynnik said that Russia was importing 780,000 tonnes a year of poultry meat. “Within three years, we must cut this to zero,” she said.

Close call:

There is one exception to the old rule about staying with your vehicle if you get caught in a storm. That’s when your car is stuck straddling a railway track. No one was injured when a CP train crashed into a car near Beausejour during the blizzard that gripped southern Manitoba earlier this week. The driver had left only minutes before the crash to seek assistance freeing the vehicle from the snowbank.