The use of winter cover cropping has been shown to be both agronomically and environmentally advantageous in processing tomato rotations in central California. However, growers have found that the traditional approach to winter cover cropping, growing high-biomass legumes or legume-grass blends, can severely complicate spring tillage and delay tomato planting. An alternative approach, in which a grass cover crop is terminated with an herbicide in late winter to limit biomass production and minimize spring tillage challenges, was evaluated in three field trials in 2005-2006. In each field a cultivar of triticale (x Triticosecale cv. 'Trios Biocrop') was seeded in early November. Replicated plots of the cover crop were killed at 2 different times (early to mid-February, or late Feb - early March) to provide treatments with a range of biomass. Once the cover crops had established significant biomass, winter storm runoff volume was reduced from 24-79% compared to traditional fallow winter management. Across sites, cover crop above-ground biomass production averaged 0.5 and 1.0 ton dry matter/acre in the early- and late termination treatments, respectively The dead cover crop residue was shredded and soil incorporated prior to tomato transplanting in late April to mid May. In the two drip-irrigated fields cover cropping had no effect on tomato fruit yield or quality. In the only furrow-irrigated trial, cover cropping increased marketable tomato yield by 20% (18 Mg ha-1) compared to fallow winter management, with no significant difference between cover crop termination dates.