Black Oat (Avena strigosa) is having a resurgence as a biomass producer for cover crops and as a forage for livestock.  Black oats tiller out more and have a very fibrous root mass similar to cereal rye.

SoilSaver black oats grow very fast and tiller out very well to give quick growth in the spring.  They would work very well in a rotation in front of soybeans or cotton.  SoilSaver is a joint release between Auburn University and IAPAR (Institute of Agronomy of Parana) in Brazil.  It does not have enough cold tolerance to over winter for us, so we are looking at it as a spring oat for a large area.  It can be planted in the spring, and also can be planted in late summer or early fall and harvested for forage or let it freeze out then.