Texture is the proportion of the three mineral fractions of soil: sand, silt and clay. It does not change with handling—it is a property of soil, not how it is worked—and it determines almost everything else: how much water it retains, how easily it drains, how much it compacts, when you can enter with the machine.
| Cluster | Classes | What does it imply? |
|---|---|---|
| Gross | Loamy sand | Drains quickly, retains little water, easy to work with |
| Moderately thick | Sandy loam | Good drainage, medium-low retention |
| Average | Loamy loam, Silty loam | The balance: good retention and good drainage |
| Moderately fine | Clay loam, Silty clay loam, Sandy clay loam | More retention, slower drainage |
| Fine | Clayey, Silty clay | Lots of retention, slow drainage, compacts |
"Franca"—from the English loam—is the technical term for the balanced soil, which has the three fractions in proportions that do not dominate each other. It is what in property is called good land.
The map layer is a national raster of 1 km resolution for the first 15 cm. It is used to place the property in a textural group, not to separate two neighboring paddocks.