Datamars Livestockvs
CattleMax
CattleMax: If you want a full herd record with breeding and financial tracking rather than a weighing and ID layer
Datamars Livestock
EID tag, weigh scale and livestock data platform behind the Tru-Test brand
As of 1 September 2026, Datamars Livestock's pricing is not published; the vendor quotes on request. The software layer over Datamars and Tru-Test electronic ID tags and weigh indicators. Softwr lists it under Agriculture. Datamars Livestock is made by Datamars, available on Web, iOS, Android, Windows.
Overview
What Datamars Livestock does
Datamars Livestock is the data platform for the identification and weighing hardware Datamars sells under the Tru-Test, Z Tags and Allflex-adjacent brands: visual and electronic ear tags, stick and panel EID readers, weigh scale indicators and load bars. The software captures weigh sessions and EID scans, holds life data against each animal, calculates average daily gain, and produces the movement and treatment records that national traceability schemes require. The Data Link desktop application handled this on a PC for years; the newer Datamars Livestock cloud service moves it to a browser and phone with automatic sync from Bluetooth-connected readers. The fact to check before buying is the migration. From January 2026 customers using Tru-Test weigh indicators and EID readers are being moved onto the new Datamars Livestock Integrated cloud software, which consolidates the legacy Datamars Livestock service and Data Link. Migrations of this kind are where free-with-hardware software quietly becomes a subscription, and where records held only in a desktop database need to be exported before support ends. Anyone with years of weigh history on a Data Link PC should confirm what transfers and what does not before the switch rather than after it. The buyer is a beef, sheep or deer producer who is already weighing animals and wants the numbers to mean something: drafting on target weight, tracking gain by mob or by sire, and satisfying NAIT, NLIS, BCMS or USDA traceability depending on the country. Datamars' strength is that it owns the tag, the reader and the scale, so the chain works without integration effort. Its weakness is the same thing: the software is an accessory to hardware sales, and it shows in feature depth compared with dedicated herd management systems.
What people use it 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
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about 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.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Datamars Livestock
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- Datamars LivestockvsHerdwatch
Herdwatch: If compliance paperwork and medicine records are the main pain rather than growth rates
- Datamars LivestockvsDairyComp
DairyComp: If the operation is dairy rather than beef or sheep and needs lactation-level records
Pricing
What Datamars Livestock costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Datamars Livestock
On request
- 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
- Quoted through regional distributors
Capabilities
Features
EID and visual tag management
Links electronic tag numbers to visual tags and animal life data
Weigh session capture
Records weights from Tru-Test indicators and load bars with automatic animal matching
Average daily gain
Calculates gain between sessions by animal, mob, sire or management group
Auto-drafting
Drives three-way drafters from weight or attribute rules at the crush
Traceability records
Produces movement and treatment records for NAIT, NLIS and equivalent schemes
Bluetooth reader sync
Pulls sessions off XRS2i and similar stick readers without a cable
Treatment and animal events
Logs health treatments with withdrawal periods against individual animals
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Keep looking
Where to go from Datamars Livestock
- Datamars Livestock alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Datamars Livestock pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Datamars Livestock badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Agriculture softwareThe full category
- Best Agriculture softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Agriculture software for
Compare Datamars Livestock with
- CattleMax
- Herdwatch
- Nofence
- DairyComp
- Allflex Livestock Intelligence
- Gallagher eShepherd
- Lely Horizon
- Nedap Livestock Management
- fieldmargin
- AgriWebb
- Farmbrite
- GEA DairyNet
- FarmCommand
- Farmers Business Network (FBN)
- Farmers Edge
- FarmWorks
- FieldView Plus
- fieldmargin
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Datamars Livestock, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
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