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Agriculture · head to head

Allflex Livestock Intelligence vs Lely Horizon

Allflex Livestock Intelligence logo

Allflex Livestock Intelligence

Agriculture

SenseHub cow monitoring where the collar, the software and the reader come as one per-animal monthly fee

From
3.83/month
Rated
-
Lely Horizon logo

Lely Horizon

Agriculture

Dairy herd management software billed per lactating cow that only runs a Lely robot barn

From
On request
Rated
-

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Allflex Livestock Intelligence the subscription version never ends: at published New Zealand rates a 400-cow herd on the Premium plan pays roughly 22,700 dollars a year indefinitely, which over a ten-year collar life exceeds what an outright purchase would have cost.; Lely Horizon billing is per lactating cow, so the software cost grows with the herd indefinitely and a farm that expands from 120 to 200 cows takes a permanent software cost increase it did not budget when it bought the robots.
  • They diverge on capability: Allflex Livestock Intelligence covers Heat detection, Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Allflex Livestock Intelligence and Lely Horizon actually diverge.

Attributes where Allflex Livestock Intelligence and Lely Horizon differ
AttributeAllflex Livestock IntelligenceLely Horizon
Starting price3.83/monthOn request
Pricing modelPer cow per monthquote

Identical on both: free tier (No), platforms (Web, iOS, Android, Windows), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Agriculture).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Allflex Livestock Intelligence

  • Heat detection
  • Health monitoring
  • SenseHub Beef and Feedlot
  • Transition cow monitoring
  • Group nutrition reporting
  • Sorting gate control
  • Electronic identification
  • Herd management integration

Only in Lely Horizon

  • Per-cow milking data
  • Health and fertility alerts
  • Work list generation
  • Feed management
  • Farm Management Support
  • Multi-site view
  • Mobile alerts
  • Reporting and benchmarking

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Allflex Livestock Intelligence

  • A 400-cow dairy replacing tail paint and a synchronisation programme with automated heat detectionnot Lely Horizon
  • A herd manager who wants fresh cow problems flagged on day two rather than found on day fivenot Lely Horizon
  • A feedlot monitoring pen-level rumination to spot a ration problem before intakes dropnot Lely Horizon
  • A farm installing a drafting gate so flagged cows are separated automatically at exit rather than by handnot Lely Horizon

Lely Horizon

  • A 180-cow dairy running four Astronaut robots that needs the attention list to replace walking the barn twice a daynot Allflex Livestock Intelligence
  • A farm adding Vector automatic feeding that wants ration delivery driven by the same cow data as milkingnot Allflex Livestock Intelligence
  • A dairy manager tracking transition cow health across two sites from one accountnot Allflex Livestock Intelligence
  • A Lely advisor benchmarking a client's robot utilisation against comparable farms before recommending a fourth boxnot Allflex Livestock Intelligence

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Allflex Livestock Intelligence

  • The subscription version never ends: at published New Zealand rates a 400-cow herd on the Premium plan pays roughly 22,700 dollars a year indefinitely, which over a ten-year collar life exceeds what an outright purchase would have cost.
  • The software only works with Allflex sensors, so a farm that wants to change monitoring supplier replaces every collar or tag on every animal, which is the switching cost that keeps herds in place.
  • Automated sorting requires a drafting gate that is a separate capital purchase, published in New Zealand at 38,200 to 53,500 dollars plus GST, so the alerts are only as useful as your willingness to fetch cows by hand until you buy one.
  • Pricing is published in only a few markets and varies with herd size and distributor, so a buyer in North America or Europe cannot benchmark a quote without doing the cross-market conversion themselves.
  • Integration into herd management packages is partner-dependent rather than universal, and a farm running an uncommon local herd recording system may find data has to be exported and reconciled rather than flowing across.

Lely Horizon

  • Billing is per lactating cow, so the software cost grows with the herd indefinitely and a farm that expands from 120 to 200 cows takes a permanent software cost increase it did not budget when it bought the robots.
  • Horizon is not optional: the barn equipment depends on it, so the subscription cannot be cancelled in a difficult year the way a discretionary analytics tool can, which removes any negotiating position at renewal.
  • It manages Lely equipment and effectively nothing else, so a farm running a Lely robot alongside a conventional parlour or another manufacturer's feeder ends up with two systems and no combined cow record.
  • The migration from the older T4C system was compulsory and rebuilt the interface and reporting, and farms that had years of T4C reports and custom lists found the equivalents either missing or shaped differently, costing retraining time.
  • Everything is bought and supported through the local Lely Center, so pricing, response time and the quality of advice vary by dealer with no published rate card, and a farm with a weak local centre has no practical alternative supplier.

Pricing, plan by plan

Allflex Livestock Intelligence

3.83/month
  • SenseHub Collar Starter$3.83/month
    • Heat detection only
    • Per cow per month, excluding GST
    • Collar, shed setup and NFC stick reader included
  • SenseHub Collar Premium$4.73/month
    • Heat, health and rumination monitoring
    • Per cow per month, excluding GST
    • Collar, shed setup and NFC stick reader included
  • SenseHub purchased system$undefined/year
    • Capital purchase of tags, controller and licence
    • Starter, Advanced and Premium application tiers
    • Quoted regionally through distributors

Lely Horizon

On request
  • Horizon Basic$undefined/month
    • Core robot operation and monitoring
    • Per lactating cow subscription
    • Invoiced digitally by the local Lely Center
  • Horizon Control$undefined/month
    • Adds herd management and fertility tooling
    • Per lactating cow subscription
  • Horizon Advance$undefined/month
    • Adds analysis, benchmarking and advisor tooling
    • Per lactating cow subscription

Which should you pick?

Choose Allflex Livestock Intelligence if

  • You need heat detection.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android, Windows.
  • You also want health monitoring.

Choose Lely Horizon if

  • You need per-cow milking data.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android, Windows.
  • You also want health and fertility alerts.

Questions people ask

Is Allflex Livestock Intelligence or Lely Horizon better?
Neither clearly leads. Allflex Livestock Intelligence starts at 3.83/month and Lely Horizon at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Allflex Livestock Intelligence or Lely Horizon?
Allflex Livestock Intelligence starts at 3.83/month and Lely Horizon at On request.
Does Allflex Livestock Intelligence or Lely Horizon run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, iOS, Android, Windows, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
What is Allflex Livestock Intelligence best used for?
Allflex Livestock Intelligence is most often used for a 400-cow dairy replacing tail paint and a synchronisation programme with automated heat detection, a herd manager who wants fresh cow problems flagged on day two rather than found on day five, a feedlot monitoring pen-level rumination to spot a ration problem before intakes drop, a farm installing a drafting gate so flagged cows are separated automatically at exit rather than by hand. Of those, a 400-cow dairy replacing tail paint and a synchronisation programme with automated heat detection and a herd manager who wants fresh cow problems flagged on day two rather than found on day five are not what Lely Horizon is typically brought in for.
What can Allflex Livestock Intelligence do that Lely Horizon cannot?
Allflex Livestock Intelligence covers Heat detection, Health monitoring, SenseHub Beef and Feedlot, Transition cow monitoring. Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Health and fertility alerts, Work list generation, Feed management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Allflex Livestock Intelligence: Does the software work without Allflex tags?

No. SenseHub reads Allflex sensors only, so the software and hardware are a single purchase decision.

Lely Horizon: How is Lely Horizon priced?

As a subscription per lactating cow milked by the Astronaut robots, in Basic, Control and Advance tiers. Lely does not publish rates; the local Lely Center quotes them.

Allflex Livestock Intelligence: What does SenseHub cost per cow?

Where published, a collar Starter plan is around 3.83 New Zealand dollars per cow per month and Premium around 4.73, both excluding GST and both varying with herd size and region.

Lely Horizon: Can I run Horizon without Lely robots?

No. It is the control and management layer for Lely equipment and has no meaningful function without it.

Allflex Livestock Intelligence: Is there a way to buy it outright instead of subscribing?

Yes, the purchased system remains available with Starter, Advanced and Premium licence tiers, quoted through distributors. SenseHub GO is the subscription alternative.

Lely Horizon: What happened to T4C?

Horizon replaced it. Migration was required rather than optional, and reporting was rebuilt rather than ported.

Allflex Livestock Intelligence: Do I need a drafting gate?

Not to receive alerts, but without one you fetch flagged cows manually. Gates are a separate five-figure capital purchase.

Lely Horizon: Does the subscription end when the robot is paid off?

No. It continues for as long as the robots are milking, which is the cost most robot business cases understate.

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