Pasture Management
for
Horses

Soil Structure

Soil structure and texture are often discussed together and often confused. Whereas texture refers to the sizes of the individual particles that make up the soil, structure refers to how these particles may be stuck together to form crumbs or larger structures. Structure is very important. If the soil simply consisted of a mass of individual particles, the spaces in-between would be very small and would seriously restrict the movement of air and water, particularly in the heavier soils. A clay soil with no structure would be very similar to the clay used by a potter, with the water being held at very high tension.

Structure may develop as the result of wetting and drying, burrowing of animals including earthworms, growth of plant roots, or the addition of lime.
The stability of the structure will be higher in soils with a reasonable organic matter content i.e. a soil containing very little organic matter is likely to suffer a loss of structure when it becomes wet.

A soils structure may be investigated by digging a hole, then scrape the side of the hole with a trowel to determine whether the soil is crumbly or simply a solid mass of individual soil particles.