DataFarming vs Cibo Labs 2026: Cropper's Tool or Grazier's? (Australia)

On paper these two look like rivals. Both are Australian-built satellite-analytics platforms. Both run on the same European Space Agency Sentinel-2 imagery, refreshed every five days. Both bill in Australian dollars, both clear our Australian Fit gate at full marks, and both score in our top band.

But put them side by side and the choice is almost made for you. DataFarming is a cropping tool — crop vigour, variable-rate prescriptions, and satellite weed mapping for broadacre. Cibo Labs' PastureKey is a grazing tool — it measures how much feed is standing in each paddock, and nothing else. They sit on the same satellites and answer completely different questions.

So this isn't a fight. It's a fork in the road. Below is how to know which road you're on — and the handful of cases where you might want both.

Quick look

Both reviews were last checked on 7 June 2026: our DataFarming review and our Cibo Labs review.

What it costs in Australia

Both publish real AUD pricing — a rarity in a category usually rendered in US dollars. The figures below are the vendors' own. We've added the GST-inclusive equivalent at the standard 10% on the GST-exclusive rates so you can compare like for like; a GST-registered farm business can generally claim the input-tax credit (confirm with your accountant).

The pricing models are built differently, which matters more than the headline numbers. DataFarming's base NDVI is free forever, and the paid layer is largely pay-per-use — your real spend depends on how much high-res imagery, prescription work and weedSAT you pull, so budget the per-hectare add-ons, not just the $395 or $795 subscription. PastureKey is a flat annual subscription scaled to the area you monitor: predictable, but with no free standing tier beyond the trial and the coarser MLA Feedbase Monitor. One gripe on Cibo's side: the price list is buried in the help centre, not on the product page.

Where they actually differ

The headline split is crop versus pasture, but a few practical differences decide it.

What they measure. DataFarming reads crop vigour through NDVI and turns it into variable-rate prescription files for seed, fertiliser, lime, gypsum and chemical — zones to a downloadable file in minutes. PastureKey reads one thing: Total Standing Dry Matter, the kilograms of feed per hectare in each paddock, split into green and dead, and derives the Feed on Offer number graziers use to set stocking rates. One builds a prescription; the other counts the feed.

The flagship AI. DataFarming's is weedSAT — GRDC-funded, developed with University of Sydney over four years, which maps weeds in ultra-high-resolution satellite imagery and exports a section-control spray file that can cut herbicide use by up to 80%. It's a genuine machine-learning story, but it's early: the green-on-brown summer-fallow mode only reached limited release in August 2025, in-crop detection is a 2026-and-beyond target, and you need a section-control boom to use it at all. Cibo's AI is the pasture model itself — calibrated on more than 7,500 on-ground sites across Australia, with an October 2025 upgrade that roughly halved its error (median absolute error from 235 to 113 kg/ha). Cibo publishes its accuracy figures and R-squared; DataFarming's marketing is quieter about its numbers. PastureKey's AI is more mature and more transparent; DataFarming's is more ambitious and still proving itself.

Hardware and integrations. Neither needs sensors on the farm. But weedSAT only earns its keep if you own a section- or nozzle-control boom and have patchy, low-coverage weed pressure to spray against — blanket weed pressure erases the saving. PastureKey needs nothing but paddock boundaries, and it pushes its feed numbers straight into AgriWebb and PairTree, so the data lands where your livestock records already live.

Data residency. A real difference, and it cuts in opposite directions. Cibo discloses that it hosts customer data on AWS in the United States (US-West for farm and boundary data). DataFarming publishes no data-residency or data-ownership statement at all. So Cibo is more transparent but offshore; DataFarming is silent, which is its own gap. Either way, ask the vendor where your boundaries and yield history live before you upload years of records.

Who should pick which

This one's clean, so we'll be blunt.

Pick DataFarming if you're a cropper. Broadacre grain, oilseeds, pulses — anything where you're managing crop vigour and laying down variable-rate inputs. The free NDVI base tier alone justifies the login, and weedSAT is worth a paid trial on your worst summer-fallow paddocks if you run a section-control boom. It's our category Top Pick for cropping, and at 22/25 the higher-scoring tool here.

Pick Cibo Labs PastureKey if you're a grazier. Cattle or sheep across hundreds or thousands of hectares, where the question that runs the business is "how much feed have I got, and where?" Nothing in DataFarming answers that the way PastureKey does. Start on the free MLA Feedbase Monitor or the 30-day trial and judge the feed map against what's actually under your stock.

The mixed enterprise — and here's the only case for both. If you crop and graze, they're complements, not alternatives: DataFarming on the cropping country, PastureKey on the pasture, with PastureKey's feed numbers flowing into AgriWebb for the livestock side. Running both is the right answer for a genuine mixed operation — they don't overlap, so you're not paying twice for the same thing.

Note that both clear our Australian Fit gate at 5/5, so neither is capped by the Australian Fit rule — the one-point score gap is about feature maturity, not local fit. DataFarming edges ahead on its free tier and broader stack; Cibo edges ahead on transparency and model maturity. On Australian fit, they're level.

Honest limitation, common to both: they ride the same optical satellite, so cloud and dense tree canopy degrade the read for either tool — a real constraint in the wet-season north and under timber. And both depend on a connection to view imagery, so plan heavy work for when you're in mobile range or on the homestead Wi-Fi, not out on the back blocks.

Frequently asked questions

Are DataFarming and Cibo Labs available in Australia?

Yes. Both are Queensland-built — DataFarming in Toowoomba (2017), Cibo Labs in Queensland — and both run on the same ESA Sentinel-2 imagery on a five-day refresh. Both clear our Australian Fit gate at 5/5.

Do they charge in AUD?

Yes, both publish real AUD pricing — a rarity in this category. DataFarming runs a free NDVI base tier with paid layers (Advanced $395/year, Pro $795/year, weedSAT $4–7/ha + GST). Cibo Labs PastureKey is a flat annual subscription from $500/year ex GST.

Is there a free tier?

DataFarming has a free Basic NDVI tier with an archive to 2017. Cibo Labs has no free standing tier beyond a 30-day trial and the coarser MLA Australian Feedbase Monitor.

Which keeps Australian data onshore?

Neither confirms onshore storage. Cibo Labs discloses it hosts data on AWS in the United States (US-West). DataFarming publishes no data-residency statement at all. Either way, ask the vendor where your boundaries and history live before uploading records.

Which should I pick — cropper's tool or grazier's?

Pick DataFarming if you're a cropper — crop NDVI, variable-rate prescriptions and weed mapping, and our category Top Pick for cropping. Pick Cibo Labs PastureKey if you're a grazier — it measures standing feed per paddock. Run both for a genuine mixed enterprise.

Read next

• DataFarming review — the full 22/25 verdict, weedSAT economics and pricing
• Cibo Labs review — the full 21/25 verdict on PastureKey's feed model
• Best AgTech & Agriculture AI Tools in Australia 2026 — the category roundup

Sources

1. DataFarming — Homepage (free 5-day NDVI, 50,000+ farms / 330,000+ paddocks / 65M ha, variable rate in <5 minutes) — https://www.datafarming.com/ — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20260521041718/https://www.datafarming.com/ (snapshot 21 May 2026) — checked 13 June 2026
2. DataFarming — Products page (weedSAT green-on-brown/green-on-green, up to ~80% chemical reduction, ~1/6th competitor cost, 90% boom compatibility, RapidEM rates, STACK Analysis) — https://www.datafarming.com/products — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20260521041737/https://www.datafarming.com/products (snapshot 21 May 2026) — checked 13 June 2026
3. DataFarming — Features / pricing page (Basic free; Advanced $395/year; Pro $795/year; Enterprise POA; weedSAT $4–7/ha + GST; RapidEM $5/ha + GST) — https://www.datafarming.com/features — Wayback: http://web.archive.org/web/20260521041737/https://www.datafarming.com/features — checked 13 June 2026
4. DataFarming — About us (founded 2017, Tim and Peta Neale, Toowoomba QLD, Australian-owned and family-run) — https://www.datafarming.com.au/about (repointed 21 Sep 2026 — old URL returned HTTP 404, found in a full-corpus citation check; page content and facts unchanged) — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20251122105037/http://datafarming.com.au/about (snapshot 22 Nov 2025 — the capture predates our check; it is the nearest snapshot of this URL, not a same-day one) — checked 13 June 2026
5. GRDC — weedSAT update paper (Aug 2025) (machine-learning algorithms, ultra-high-res/hyperspectral imagery, up to 80% herbicide reduction, $7/ha vs $20/ha benchmark, University of Sydney, GRDC Grain Automate funding, four-year project, section-control spray files) — https://grdc.com.au/resources-and-publications/grdc-update-papers/tab-content/grdc-update-papers/2025/08/weedsat-turning-your-conventional-boom-into-a-spot-sprayer-using-ultra-high-resolution-satellite-imagery — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20251129061932/https://grdc.com.au/resources-and-publications/grdc-update-papers/tab-content/grdc-update-papers/2025/08/weedsat-turning-your-conventional-boom-into-a-spot-sprayer-using-ultra-high-resolution-satellite-imagery (snapshot 29 Nov 2025) — checked 13 June 2026
6. GRDC GroundCover — "New weed detecting system uses existing boomsprays" (limited release winter fallows Aug 2025, fuller green-on-brown Jan 2026, in-crop 2026+, 120+ paddocks / 12,000+ ha tested) — https://groundcover.grdc.com.au/grdc/announcements/new-weed-detecting-system-uses-existing-boomsprays — checked 13 June 2026
7. Cibo Labs — PastureKey product page (Sentinel-2 5-day/10m imagery, ML + ground truth, median error <200kg/ha, R2 0.85, TSDM/FOO definitions, AgriWebb/PairTree push, 30-day free trial, no hardware) — https://www.cibolabs.com.au/pasturekey — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20260412134734/https://www.cibolabs.com.au/pasturekey — checked 13 June 2026
8. Cibo Labs — Company home page (Queensland-based, 340M ha coverage, MLA and partner list, free Australian Feedbase Monitor) — https://www.cibolabs.com.au/ — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20260521022105/https://www.cibolabs.com.au/ — checked 13 June 2026
9. Cibo Labs blog — "More accurate than ever: major model upgrade for PastureKey users" (MAE 235→113 kg/ha, MAPE 25%→13%, 50% fewer parameters, 7,500+ AU reference sites, Northern Rangelands/WA coverage) — https://blog.cibolabs.com.au/blog/more-accurate-than-ever-cibo-labs-delivers-major-model-upgrade-for-pasturekey-users — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20251212225645/https://blog.cibolabs.com.au/blog/more-accurate-than-ever-cibo-labs-delivers-major-model-upgrade-for-pasturekey-users — checked 13 June 2026
10. Cibo Labs support — PastureKey subscription pricing (tiered AUD pricing $500–$11,250/yr ex GST, monthly options, premium support and back-processing add-ons) — https://support.cibolabs.com.au/en/knowledge/pasturekey-subscription — Wayback: https://web.archive.org/web/20251122070821/https://support.cibolabs.com.au/en/knowledge/pasturekey-subscription — checked 13 June 2026

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