Editor’s Note: Over the next few weeks we would like to introduce our readers to the correspondents who faithfully write town news each week.

NEWRY — The Citizen’s Newry columnist, Amy Robertson Henley, is a fourth-generation farmer on her family’s farm in Newry.

It’s been in the family since her great-grandfather had it. The farmhouse and barn were built in 1850 and owned originally by a man who was also a blacksmith.

In fact, that owner had his shop just across the Bear River Road, and at times that building was used to hold town meetings, “but only if he kept the stove going,” went the story, Amy said.

Her grandfather farmed and also worked as a milkman, delivering milk in the area. And her late father, Leslie Robertson, worked full-time as a farmer and logger. He kept beef cattle as the primary livestock.

He also grew the size of the property to 498 acres, reaching north along the Bear River.

Amy herself had minimal involvement in the running of the farm when she was young. After graduating from Telstar in 2000, she earned a two-year degree from Thomas College as an administrative assistant. She returned home to work for 13 years for chiropractor Dr. Michael Liberti.

She lived in the area but when her dad became ill with cancer, she moved back home to be with him. He passed away in 2013.

Amy stayed on at the farm. It was there she met her husband, Ethan, when a farmer friend brought him along for a visit. Ethan at the time was dairy farming in Stoneham while also working for an excavation contractor.

They married in 2015 and have lived at the Robertson Farm since. Both work at other jobs and run the farm on the side.

“I don’t know many people who make money at farming,” said Amy.

They have 17 beef cattle.

Amy joked that Ethan wanted to have dairy cows, but she didn’t want to have to commit to the milking, finding beef cattle easier to care for.

“I can’t imagine not having them,” she said.

The couple also has an eight-year-old son, Eliot, to keep them busy.

Amy helps chase the cows and occasionally drives the tractor. Eliot helps with haying.

She remembers when people outside the family would come to help with haying, when square bales were the norm. Moving and storing them involved hand-lifting the bales into a wagon and then unloading them in the barn. But like most farmers now, said Amy, they use round bales, which can be picked up and moved mechanically.

In addition to the cattle, the Henleys also have 11 laying hens that Amy has primary charge of, most of them producing an egg a day. She enjoys caring for the birds.

“It’s fun,” she said.

Ten of the hens live in an enclosure. And then there’s Betty, who doesn’t get along with the others. That earned her the privilege of roaming the yard freely and essentially becoming a pet.

Betty sits on the back porch with Amy in nice weather and eats peanuts, living a life of relative luxury.  “She lays a nice egg, though,” said Amy.

Despite being away from the farm for a number of years when she was younger, Amy recognizes why she was drawn back to running it.

“It’s in your blood,” she said.