Soil Texture: Advantages and Disadvantages of Farm Production

The texture of the soil is one of the most important issues that must be considered when defining the use and management that we are going to give to that soil. Surely you have ever heard that this soil is loose, drying, burning, heavy or strong.

Precisely, these are colloquial definitions that describe the texture of the soil. Rather, they describe the effect that the soil texture has on the crop or on the plants that grow on it.

In this article, you will find the definition of Soil Texture, what are the characteristics and disadvantages of each type of Soil Texture and how can soil erosion affect your farm’s productivity.

Soil texture

In order to fully understand how soil texture can affect you, we have to define precisely what soil texture is.

As you can imagine, in the soil there are mineral particles that are coarser, others of medium size, and others that are finer. Soil texture is the percentage of coarse, medium, and fine particles in the soil.

Specifically, coarse particles are called sand, medium particles are called silt, and fine particles are called clay.

Soil texture is one of the parameters I look at first. This value gives me a lot of information to be able to understand what is happening in the soil and on my farm.

Soil Textural Triangle

Once we know that the texture of the soil depends on the amount of coarse, medium and fine particles that we have in that soil, we are going to see how soils are classified according to the percentage of each of these particles in the soil.

Depending on the content of clay, silt and sand that the soil has, the soil texture can be classified into mainly:

●     Clay soil: when the clay content exceeds 35%.

●     Silty soil: when the silt content exceeds 85%.

●     Sandy soil: when the sand content exceeds 85%.

●     Loam soil: when there is a balance between the different soil particles.

These are the 4 main textural classes of soils. However, there are many other intermediates between them. For example Sandy Loam, Silt Loam, Clay Loam, Clay Sand Loam, Clay Silt Loam, Sandy Clay or Silty Clay.

Soil Texture Types

As you can imagine, each type of texture has its advantages and disadvantages.

So that your doubts about the colloquial description of a floor are blurred, I explain what each of these terms means:

●     Burning, strong or heavy soils: they are clayey soils that in times of lack of rain generate strong water stress in crop plants by retaining water so strongly that the plant cannot take it. In addition, they are soils that when wet are heavy for carrying out work such as tillage.

●     Loose or drying soils: they are sandy soils that have a high capacity for water infiltration and drainage, which facilitates their work in relation to clayey soils. They are drying because they quickly drain the water and, therefore, the soil dries faster than in the case of clayey soils.

●     Albero soils: they are silty soils that are normally yellow in colour and have a high capacity to compact and puddle. They are medium-low fertility soils.

The effect of soil erosion on your farm productivity

While in times of drought, the concern for the farmer is when it will rain again, in the rainy season the concern is that it rains gently enough to avoid soil erosion problems.

Therefore, Agriculture Mortgages is going to make you understand what soil erosion is, and what are the consequences of soil erosion.

What is Soil Erosion?

Soil erosion is the wear and tear of the earth's surface by external agents, such as water or wind.

In other Internet web pages, you can find that erosion is a denudation of soils and rocks that produces different processes on the Earth's surface.

However, from my point of view, these definitions of erosion fall short because of their meaning and the repercussions they can have.

I believe, soil erosion is a natural process and also induced by human beings under certain circumstances that generate the loss in the first place of the fertile layer of the soil, being able to reach the complete loss of the soil, whose main consequence is the destruction of the conditions present and future production of said soil.

What are the Consequences of Soil Erosion?

There are many consequences that derive from soil erosion, however, in this article, we are going to focus on the most important ones.

Loss of Fertile Soil

Fertile soil is what allows the farmer to produce. In addition, in the process of soil erosion, the fertile soil, which is the first layer of the soil, is the first to erode and is lost.

The more fertile soil is lost on a farm, the greater the farm's fertilization needs will be, and the higher the farm's production costs will be.

Water stress due to low infiltration

Soil erosion causes a worsening of the soil structure, which results in low infiltration and water retention. This fact results in an increase in the water stress of the plants during the dry season, which leads to a need to increase the irrigation applied, thus increasing the environmental impact and the costs for the farmer.

Floods

The difficulty that the soil has to allow the infiltration of water causes an increase in surface runoff that leads to a very significant increase in the flow of rivers and streams, which end up generating significant flooding.

Observe one thing: floods are not water, they are mud. This mud is what is transported from the farms where erosion occurs.

If we get well-managed soil where the infiltration capacity is very high, we will be avoiding the floods that have caused so much damage in recent years.

Desertification

Desertification is the process of soil degradation that transforms fertile and productive soil into the soil without productive capacity, that is, it turns it into a desert.

This desertification process is directly proportional to soil erosion. In addition, the desertification process that a farm has is inversely proportional to the profitability that can be obtained from the farm, that is, the greater the degree of desertification, the less benefit the farmer can obtain from that farm.

It is obvious in view of this article that good quality of soil and its conservation is essential to achieve good profitability of a farm in a sustainable way. Because what will we do with the farm when it is no longer capable of producing anything?

We are in time to avoid the problem, we have possible solutions on the table to achieve better and more profitable production. It is only necessary to change our mentality and get down to work.