Through all the evidence of a shrinking farm and ranch population, the Nebraska FFA remains a blue-jacketed tower of strength.

An estimated 3,200 students from 132 high school chapters descended on Lincoln Thursday for the first full day of their three-day state convention.

Donelle Johnson, part of the Nebraska Department of Education staff in charge of the event, described the annual turnout at The Cornhusker Marriott hotel as “real steady.”

Consolidations of school districts claim a few chapters, she said. But that’s balanced out again this year by the decisions of Spalding, in Greeley County north of Grand Island, and Southern Valley at Oxford, near Holdrege, to start others.

And again this year, the Thursday ag entrepreneurship awards mark the transition toward a membership mixture that includes students from farms, ranches, acreages and from town addresses.

One of the high-water marks for that competition remains Ely Farms Pickled Asparagus, which continues to grow and flourish between Sutton and Grafton.

Reid Ely, 19, a state FFA vice president, a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and a partner in the business that brother Neal started seven years ago, said this year’s goal is 11,000 pints of pickled spears.

“It’s a good tasting product that’s very unique,” Reid Ely said. “You’ll not find any other pickled asparagus anywhere else except California.”

Don’t ask for the brine recipe, because you won’t get it. It is, said Reid, “kind of a secret thing.”

A family business that also includes their parents, Mike and Tami, has just expanded from two to four acres of asparagus. Reid is in charge of sales of the fresh-picked produce.

“With entrepreneurship like that, the sky is pretty much the limit,” he said. “It shows you there’s so much more in the agricultural field in Nebraska that you can take off and be successful at.”

He credits agricultural education programs in place in Sutton and elsewhere. “What we learn from FFA motivates us and shows us the opportunities that are out there.”

This year’s top entrepreneurship winners were Judd Went of Columbus Lakeview, who’s working toward marketing specialty cuts of lamb in the Columbus area, and Rachael Arkfeld, a member of the Lourdes Central chapter in Nebraska City, who’s pursuing possibilities with miniature pumpkins and wild flowers.

Reach Art Hovey at 523-4949 or at ahovey@alltel.net.