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Agriculture · head to head

Datamars Livestock vs Lely Horizon

Datamars Livestock logo

Datamars Livestock

Agriculture

EID tag, weigh scale and livestock data platform behind the Tru-Test brand

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: Datamars Livestock the software exists to sell tags, readers and scales, so its feature depth in breeding, financials and grazing planning is well short of dedicated herd management systems.; 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: Datamars Livestock covers EID and visual tag management, 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 Datamars Livestock and Lely Horizon actually diverge.

Attributes where Datamars Livestock and Lely Horizon differ
AttributeDatamars LivestockLely Horizon

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), 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 Datamars Livestock

  • EID and visual tag management
  • Weigh session capture
  • Average daily gain
  • Auto-drafting
  • Traceability records
  • Bluetooth reader sync
  • Treatment and animal events

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.

Datamars Livestock

  • A beef finisher drafting cattle to a target weight automatically at the crushnot Lely Horizon
  • A sheep producer tracking lamb growth rates by sire to inform ram selectionnot Lely Horizon
  • A New Zealand farm needing NAIT-compliant movement records generated from the same scans used for weighingnot Lely Horizon
  • A grazier comparing average daily gain across mobs on different paddocks or supplementsnot 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 Datamars Livestock
  • A farm adding Vector automatic feeding that wants ration delivery driven by the same cow data as milkingnot Datamars Livestock
  • A dairy manager tracking transition cow health across two sites from one accountnot Datamars Livestock
  • A Lely advisor benchmarking a client's robot utilisation against comparable farms before recommending a fourth boxnot Datamars Livestock

Where each one falls short

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

Datamars Livestock

  • The software exists to sell tags, readers and scales, so its feature depth in breeding, financials and grazing planning is well short of dedicated herd management systems.
  • A migration to new cloud software is scheduled from January 2026 for Tru-Test indicator and reader customers, which puts historical Data Link desktop records at risk if they are not exported deliberately before support changes.
  • Hardware lock-in is real: the automatic capture that makes the platform useful depends on Datamars and Tru-Test devices, and a farm with Gallagher scales gets a much thinner experience.
  • Software being bundled with hardware means it has never been priced or sold on its own merits, so there is no published cost, no clear upgrade path and no leverage if the bundling arrangement changes.
  • Traceability support is country-specific and uneven, so a farm outside the main New Zealand, Australian, UK and North American markets may find its national scheme is not directly supported and needs manual file preparation.

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

Datamars Livestock

On request
  • Datamars Livestock$undefined/year
    • Historically bundled with purchase of Datamars and Tru-Test hardware
    • Tag, reader and weigh indicator hardware is the actual cost
    • Cloud platform terms changing with the January 2026 migration

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 Datamars Livestock if

  • You need eid and visual tag management.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android, Windows.
  • You also want weigh session capture.
Datamars Livestock 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 Datamars Livestock or Lely Horizon better?
Neither clearly leads. Datamars Livestock 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, Datamars Livestock or Lely Horizon?
Datamars Livestock starts at On request and Lely Horizon at On request.
Does Datamars Livestock 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 Datamars Livestock best used for?
Datamars Livestock is most often used for a beef finisher drafting cattle to a target weight automatically at the crush, a sheep producer tracking lamb growth rates by sire to inform ram selection, a new zealand farm needing nait-compliant movement records generated from the same scans used for weighing, a grazier comparing average daily gain across mobs on different paddocks or supplements. Of those, a beef finisher drafting cattle to a target weight automatically at the crush and a sheep producer tracking lamb growth rates by sire to inform ram selection are not what Lely Horizon is typically brought in for.
What can Datamars Livestock do that Lely Horizon cannot?
Datamars Livestock covers EID and visual tag management, Weigh session capture, Average daily gain, Auto-drafting. Lely Horizon covers Per-cow milking data, Health and fertility alerts, Work list generation, Feed management.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Datamars Livestock: Do I have to pay for the software?

It has historically been included with purchase of Datamars and Tru-Test hardware. The January 2026 cloud migration is the point at which to confirm what the ongoing terms are.

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.

Datamars Livestock: What happens to my Data Link records?

They need to be migrated to the new cloud platform. Export your historical weigh sessions before the transition rather than assuming everything carries across.

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.

Datamars Livestock: Will it work with Gallagher scales?

Not natively in the way it works with Tru-Test hardware. You lose the automatic session sync that is the main reason to use it.

Lely Horizon: What happened to T4C?

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

Datamars Livestock: Does it handle NAIT and NLIS?

Yes, for New Zealand and Australia respectively, generating movement and identification records from the same EID scans used for weighing.

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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