Cattle could be tattooed on their noses in an effort to reduce the impact of stress in feedlots.

Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume. Listen Duration: 3 minutes 35 seconds 3 m 35 s Meat and Livestock Australia's Richard Norton discusses tattooing feeder cattle. ( Lara Webster ) Download 1.6 MB

Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) has been researching the idea for the past 12 months.

The innovative idea would result in a tattoo being stamped onto the nose of feeder cattle.

If an animal was stressed, the ink would react with the bloodstream and illuminate the animal's nose to indicate it was stressed.

It may sound futuristic, but MLA managing director Richard Norton said the innovation was real.

The initial technology is still under development and trials should begin within the next year.

"It actually came out of a bit of a think tank where someone said, 'Wouldn't it be great if they [cattle] could have a red light on their head to indicate that they are under stress, heat stress or getting the flu?'" Mr Norton said.

"There are two lines of thinking — either an ink tattoo on the nose or a plasma going across the nose.

"The general overarching theory is that we can measure what's in the blood of the animal, and when cortisol levels are at a high level, the animal's nose may actually turn blue from the blue ink tattooed on the nose of the animal.

"That would mean the animal is stressed... so you would not slaughter that animal [so] you may go and take that animal and settle it down."

The tattoo would be rolled out first in feedlots and eventually become available on commercial markets.

However, Mr Norton said the technology was still in the early stages and there was no guarantee such an innovation would be successful.

"We have to accept as an industry that it may fail, it may not be applicable, but the base research and development is looking very positive," he said.

Mr Norton anticipated the tattoo could be available to feedlots within the next two years.

He said there had already been significant interest shown in the project, and the possibilities for the technology were endless.

"The long-term view would be around what else we can use this for, and I know this is far stretched but you may well have bar codes on the animals instead of ear tags."