Livestock agricultural practices need to support a growing population with efficient, sustainable, and safe food production. Precision technologies can be leveraged to achieve these goals by improving individual animal health, welfare, and productivity. However, many diagnostic or health monitoring devices require at least one of: electrical energy, expensive equipment, or advanced training. The development of tattoo ink for biosensing circumvents these limitations since it does not require electrical power and a change in color can be easily interpreted. Another advantage of applying a sensor in the skin is that it reduces the impact of external environmental influence on results. When paired with microneedle array technology, permanent body modification would not be required, and a temporary tattoo patch could be created. We propose to explore the potential for biosensing ink application in animal agriculture. Initial focus will be on specific health risk monitoring in dairy production environments (e.g. bovine ketosis in the weeks before and after calving). The outcome would be proof of concept and prototype development of a safe, effective, and robust colorimetric sensor in the form of a temporary tattoo patch for dairy cows.