UPDATE: THREE hundred jobs will be slashed from NSW's Department of Primary Industries.

Staff were informed of the cuts this morning at meetings.

A Department of Primary Industries spokesman told Weekly Times Now the government had previously announced a saving target of about $30 million for the department which would equate to about 300 positions.

He said it was less than 10 per cent of the DPI workforce.

"Impacted staff will be invited to apply for other positions in the department, offered voluntary redundancies, or will be put on the deployment list to be placed in other departments," he said.

"These changes are in line with the establishment of Local Land Services."

The Local Land Services combines DPI, Livestock Health and Pest Authorities and Catchment Management Authorities and will be operational in 2014.

NSW Farmers president Fiona Simson said members feared some of the positions within the DPI delivering frontline services would disappear.

"Our members value the work and contributions local district agronomists and livestock officers have made to their businesses and the communities in which they live," she said. "I too am concerned the cuts may pre-empt what the new framework will look like and I hope it is not indicative of the government’s commitment to resourcing the new agency."

"We have sought assurances that the value of the DPI will continue to be delivered through the new agency and that the restructure will refocus on the research and delivery we have been calling on for the past 3 years."