It's not unusual at all for older combines to leave grain that is later picked up by the baler collecting the straw. If you have weird weather in the spring, it's also not unusual for a crop to sprout at different times, leaving the farmer with half a crop in the bin and half left in the field, no matter when he chooses to harvest or how new and efficient his equipment. Sometimes grain is left in the straw and there's nothing you can do about it. The good news is that if it is wheat, oats or barley, it's an annual crop - not a perennial weed that's going to haunt your dreams for years to come. All you have to do is chop it off low down with some hedge trimmers (or something similar). It won't grow back. Just don't let it go to seed. I really, really doubt it's grass. You said when you try to weed it, it's brittle and breaks easily. That sounds like young grain plants to me. You're probably thinking it's grass because all of the grains Dave mentioned do indeed look like grass when they're young. I personally wouldn't add more of the same straw because you're just adding more seeds. Just pull or chop.

I saw your pix on the lawn forum. I tried something this year that worked for some of my weeds. It is a three part process so it might not work for a large lawn, but here it is. I had oxalis in full shade. 1. Sprayed with soapy sugary water as a sticking agent. 1 tsp of dish soap and 2 ounces of molasses to a quart of water. 2. Dusted the wet leaves with baking soda and allowed it to dry. Load a sock with baking soda and tap the side to let the dust fall out onto the weed. It does no damage to the sock so you can use any sock. 3. Sprayed with strong vinegar. Even in full shade the oxalis melted away. Here are the pictures. My apologies for the picture quality. I set up the tripod and did not realize how bad they would look until it was done. The target weed is on the left side of the tree trunk. In the first one I had done steps 1 and 2 the previous day with no ill effect. Second one was taken immediately after spraying with vinegar. You can see the foaming on the leaves. Third was taken after 5 minutes. You can see the yellow flower petals wilting a little. The rest of the leaves were doing the same but you can't really tell. Fourth was taken at 30 minutes. Wilt is evident. This one was taken an hour later. The plant has wilted away just like I would expect on a hot, sunny day. Here's the first one again for direct before and after comparison. Again, this was in full shade (north side of tree) on a day in the high 60s.

Yes it can and it is becoming an increasing problem for gardeners - damage to their crops due to herbicide contaminated straw mulch and compost that contains the herbicide contaminated straw. Plus "certified weed free" isn't needed for garden mulch but it lets them charge more for it. Dave

@ albert_135: Plasticrete? or something like that. I know what you are talking about. I've seen stuff at Menards- looks like regular pavers.. But made of or with plastic stuff, kind of like how there is plastic wood now. I've noticed them, and noticed they are kind of pricey for my budget. I tend to pour my own pavers. I got a couple real molds, a circular with a woven border with a matching rectangular border piece, and a largish hexagon. And picked up a few sturdy heavy-duty kids toy bins on clearance at Michaels one year in a couple rectangle sizes. A 60 lb bag of concrete mix for 2-4 bucks depending can make 6-8 stones depending on what molds I'm using. I use petroleum jelly for the release agent. Sometimes I get fancy and set glass in the bottom of the mold before I pour. I don't typically use the pavers I make around my veggie gardens though. For some reason, working on hard surface like that around my veggie gardens is unsatisfying to me. I tend to use them a bit more decoratively around some of my other garden beds- I find it much more aesthetically pleasing. This spring I was gifted with a large amount of windows from a contractor buddy that needed to clean out his barn- he's retiring and so has no real further use or space for stockpiling that kind of thing and knew I could use a greenhouse. So I'll be concentrating on making and stockpiling pavers for the floor of the new greenhouse I get to build.