The celebration - aptly named the Swansong - featured a presentation on 50 years of beef research.

The research and cattle from the Swans Lagoon Research Station will be moved to the Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation (DEEDI) facility, the Spyglass Research Station, further upstream on the Burdekin River near Charters Towers.

Minister for Agriculture, Tim Mulherin, attended the field day and paid tribute to the Swans Lagoon facility, the 170-plus staff and the research achieved during the last 50 years.

"Scientists from Swans Lagoon and the Beef Co-operative Reserach Centre undertook joint research over many decades which resulted in a number of significant breakthroughs," Mr Mulherin said.

"This included a greater understanding of the biology of the female reproduction in the lactating Brahman cow, (which) now underpins improved productivity of the northern beef industry."

While the mood at Swans Lagoon was celebratory on Tuesday, the message from many of the beef producers, researchers, DEEDI staff, scientists and industry representatives gathered was that consultation was needed to ensure the research at the new Spyglass facility was relevant to the future of the northern beef industry.

The State Government spent $10 million purchasing Spyglass, which is an aggregation of two properties, Lucky Break and Spyglass.

Minister Mulherin said collaboration with industry and other organisations - particularly James Cook University - would be a major focus of Spyglass.

Rod Strachan had a particular interest in attending the Swansong on Tuesday - he was the foundation manager of the facility in 1962, a position he held for five years.

Mr Strachan said while those five years were challenging, they were among the best of his life.