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Agriculture · head to head

Conservis vs Lely Horizon

Conservis logo

Conservis

Agriculture

Comprehensive farm management for row crops

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
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
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Conservis acquired by TELUS Agriculture and Rabobank in July 2021, so it is now part of a larger agriculture portfolio; 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: Conservis covers Field & crop planning, 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 Conservis and Lely Horizon actually diverge.

Attributes where Conservis and Lely Horizon differ
AttributeConservisLely Horizon
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWeb, Ios, Android, ApiWeb, iOS, Android, Windows
Founded2009Unknown

Identical on both: starting price (On request), free tier (No), 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 Conservis

  • Field & crop planning
  • Input management
  • Activity tracking
  • Financial management
  • Inventory control
  • Equipment tracking
  • Harvest tracking
  • Custom reporting

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.

Conservis

  • Farm ERP covering the business rather than the agronomynot Lely Horizon
  • Grain contract managementnot Lely Horizon
  • Crop planning and budgeting against actualsnot Lely Horizon
  • Work order management across an operationnot Lely Horizon
  • Reporting plans versus actuals for lenders and partnersnot 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 Conservis
  • A farm adding Vector automatic feeding that wants ration delivery driven by the same cow data as milkingnot Conservis
  • A dairy manager tracking transition cow health across two sites from one accountnot Conservis
  • A Lely advisor benchmarking a client's robot utilisation against comparable farms before recommending a fourth boxnot Conservis

Where each one falls short

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

Conservis

  • Acquired by TELUS Agriculture and Rabobank in July 2021, so it is now part of a larger agriculture portfolio

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

Conservis

On request
  • Standard$undefined/year
    • Field management
    • Activity tracking
    • Basic reporting
  • Professional$undefined/year
    • Everything in Standard
    • Financial management
    • Inventory control
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Everything in Professional
    • Multi-entity management
    • API access

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 Conservis if

  • You need field & crop planning.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android, Api.
  • You also want input management.
Conservis review

Choose Lely Horizon if

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

Questions people ask

Is Conservis or Lely Horizon better?
Neither clearly leads. Conservis starts at On request and Lely Horizon at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Conservis or Lely Horizon?
Conservis starts at On request and Lely Horizon at On request.
Does Conservis or Lely Horizon run on more platforms?
Conservis runs on Web, Ios, Android, Api. Lely Horizon runs on Web, iOS, Android, Windows.
What is Conservis best used for?
Conservis is most often used for farm erp covering the business rather than the agronomy, grain contract management, crop planning and budgeting against actuals, work order management across an operation. Of those, farm erp covering the business rather than the agronomy and grain contract management are not what Lely Horizon is typically brought in for.
What can Conservis do that Lely Horizon cannot?
Conservis covers Field & crop planning, Input management, Activity tracking, Financial management. Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Health and fertility alerts, Work list generation, Feed management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

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.

Lely Horizon: What happened to T4C?

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

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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