It happened so quick – the tractor’s hose snagged Nathan Brickl’s ankle and the next thing he knew it was yanking him down the bank. He slid 30 feet, then slammed against the roadside. When he stopped he saw that he was stuck, one leg in a culvert and the other twisted behind his back with his work shoe up near his head.

He looked to the sky. It was overcast, and about to snow.

“Well, two ways this is gonna go down,” he told the Lord as he said a prayer. “Either you take me now … or you give me the strength to get through this.”

As he says now, “He did the latter.”

In fact, Brickl, 48, and his family found the kind of resilience born not just of the hard work so common in Wisconsin farm country, but also of the emotional journey and community support it takes to truly overcome tragedy. Their story reminds us during June's National Dairy Month of the legacy of resilience we have in farm families descending from Wisconsin’s Dairyland tradition – and all we have to lose if American family farms don't survive.

It was a regular morning. Brickl was working at his side........

© USA TODAY