Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is an ancient grain that is used to make beer and many other useful and fun things. Barley Grass (Hordeum Murinum Leporinum) is frankly a nuisance.
In the spring it pops up from previous seeds and covers the ground, crowding out many more useful pasture plants. It is edible (by sheep) while young and green, but soon goes to seed, then dries up and disappears leaving bare ground in midsummer. Just in time for a crop of summer annual weeds.
The bristly seedheads get into the faces and eyes of the grazing sheep, as well as into the wool, making it less valuable as well as uncomfortable (for them).
Crop barley (hordeum vulgare) is considered edible when it’s green, by the same people who think wheatgrass is yummy. The weedy wild barley we have, not so much.
We’ve had a few goes at getting rid of it from the paddocks around the house. Our neighbour Andrew sprayed all the lower paddocks a few times with, I think, a Group B Herbicide to force the grass to drop seed before it properly forms. One of the contamination effects of spraying that could be bleeding from the eyeballs. Not fun.
We also got permission one year to set fire to the dry seedheads in October after the fire season closed, That does reduce the amount of seed stored in the ground, but it was followed by several wet years where we couldn’t burn.
In 2021 Craig, who loves to have as many noisy machines as possible, bought a paddock slasher that he can tow behind our electric Ranger runabout. We had to wait months for it while the supply chains were still messed up. He complains I don’t let him have the really big machines he wants.
It’s very peaceful watching him mowing away, removing the tops of the plants. The slashing (with the tow-behind or with a hand-slasher) seems to work on nettles and on the vicious saffron thistles as well, if you catch them at the right moment.
It’s not perfect because the slasher is vulnerable to the many rock piles and stray logs in the paddock, so there are patches of un-slashed grass remaining. It is satisfying, though.
Nothing like taking out your frustration with a spinning blade.
One Bend In The River 
I really would like a tractor…. as would my grand daughter who shares my passion for diggers etc.
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