Hi, I've grown hairy vetch on a small scale. I have 4x4 raised beds that I use it in. It was very simple to turn it over by hand with a pitch fork. I did cut off the tops first and then as I was turning it in with a pitch fork, I added the tops & just kept turning it over until everything was covered.

It does sound as though you have sown yours on open ground in larger amounts, so my method maybe a little more labor intensive for you. I can't think of any other way to do it, except cut the tops off (weedwacker or lawnmower) and then pitchfork time. I assume a broadfork is a large version of a pitchfork.

You're going to have a great garden with all that cover crop incorporated, good luck!

I quit mixing the grains with anything because they don't come down the same way as legumes. You can kill hairy vetch with a very sharp hoe, and leave the debris to dry on the surface. Not so with winter rye, which get harder to dig the bigger it gets. Cereal rye is actually easier to dig out, great for compost. I use a lot of cereal rye, but would never let winter rye near my garden.

Winter rye with anything should probably be mowed, then spaded (turned once), left to weather a week or so, then turned again. Good luck. Winter rye is a toughie to manage my hand.

BTW, oats and sorghum are great for late summer sowing because they grow up and then winterkill.

planatus, thanks for your post. I forgot to mention that I have only sowed the hairy vetch alone because it is so easy to turn in and break down. I tried winter rye a long time ago and found it more difficult and not as easy to get rid of.

Thanks for that tip on the oats and sorghum. I'll try to remember that for late summer.

So even if I weedwhack the rye down to ground level, it will still regrow? I've read that if you wait until its flowering stage and then cut it at the ground that you can kill it that way. Or do you think I will have to pull the rye up by the roots? That would be a lot of work . . .

Again, I have small raised beds and I only did the rye once, so my experience is limited. I don't think you have to pull it out by the roots. Just do a good job of turning it in. You may get some of it back here and there. I don't remember having a bad problem with the regrowth. I thought it was harder to turn it in for sure and I got a little back, that I had to turn under again. I hope someone else with more experience responds.

"So even if I weedwhack the rye down to ground level, it will still regrow? "

That's been my experience with cereal (winter) rye. Something I use which works well, scalping it off with a string trimmer, raking the tops off to use as mulch elsewhere, and burying the remainder under stall muck and compost.

Planting holes are cut through the cover after about two weeks, a period that apparently avoids alleopathic effects on subsequent crops.

If I'm going to till, it's after crop yield.

Cereal Rye, Field Rye, Winter Rye are all the same plant, just different names for "Secale cereale". This does have allelopathic properties so if it is turned into the soil in the spring it needs to be done so several weeks before planting so growth suppression will not be a problem. I would just cut and leave the stems lay on the surface as a mulch which is less of a problem then digging it in.
Turning over 1/4 acre by hand can be done but is a lot of hard work and uses time that maybe could be better used at this time of year.