Animals rights groups that covertly film farms to monitor livestock welfare have been labelled "akin to terrorists" by the New South Wales Primary Industries Minister.

Katrina Hodgkinson launched the attack as she opened the second day of the NSW Farmers' Association's annual conference in Sydney this morning.

Ms Hodgkinson urged the farmers gathered to educate their city counterparts about farming practices and their welfare standards.

She described the recent filming of two piggeries in the state's south as diabolical.

"It seems every week now where you've got animal activists breaking into intensive farms," Ms Hodgkinson told the conference.

"In one of the cases a number of piglets died through the disturbance.

"We simply have to win. I've spoken very strongly to other government ministers in relation to this and the NSW Government is now looking at what we can do in this space as well."

"We have to keep putting it up to city people that don't, may not necessarily understand our farming practices and how important they are, that they cannot support these groups such as Animals Australia and cannot support what they're doing.

"These people are vandals. These people are akin to terrorists."

The chief executive of Animal Liberation NSW, Lynda Stoner, has hit back, saying the Minister's comments are defamatory and out of touch.

"This Government needs to look at who is speaking for this position and think about replacing her, because she is just too ignorant to be holding this position," Ms Stoner said.