Year in Review: Mischa Clouston on her powerful M. bovis post

Year in Review: Registered nurse and farmer's wife Mischa Clouston's Facebook post about the effects of Mycoplasma bovis was popular with both rural and urban audiences.

Mischa Clouston didn't know her late-night Facebook post about Mycoplasma bovis and her fears for her friends and others would turn her into something of a social media star.

The Burkes Pass farmer's wife and nurse told Jamie Mackay on The Country today she wrote the post to let her farming friends know she was thinking of them, to tell them "we're all in this together", and also to let her urban friends know it will affect them too.

"It's not just about animals and farmers suffering, it actually filters right out to the fact that farmers who don't have an income don't have money to spend in shops in town, and the likes of teachers ... having to support the children with everything going on.

Read Mischa's post here

"The effects go a lot further than a lot of people in New Zealand realise.

"It's about sowing a seed and having a think about it before judgments are made and blown up and we're all part of this and can be part of making it better."

Clouston said that as a nurse she'd had "big, burly" farmers bursting into tears when they'd come in for a consultation.

Clouston says we need to strenghten links between urban and rural areas in a wellness context.