As farmers up and down the country prepare for the clean-up operation after Storm Ashley over the weekend, milk payments for September are hitting the bank accounts.

So far all of the co-ops have issued milk price increases for September ranging from 2.25c/l to 2.75c/l of an increase compared to August prices.

This increase reflects the general health of dairy markets and even though butter prices have reduced a bit from their peak, they are still doing well.

Talking to a few co-op people over the last week or so, it seems that milk supplies for the last few weeks are running around 15% higher than this time last year.

That should be no surprise as the weather this time last year was horrendous, but so far this has been a relatively good autumn for most farmers apart from those affected by floods last month.

The question now is what can farmers do to maximise supply and take advantage of the high prices?

Extending the grazing season will keep grass in the diet for longer. We know from research and farmer experience that when grass is kept in the diet yield will be higher, workload will decrease and feed costs will be lower.

Extending grazing this autumn will be difficult from a grass supply point of view as farm covers are lower than normal meaning grass will run out quicker.

This is despite the fact that ground conditions are generally good. With limited grass supply it means that farmers are going to have to put in extra supplement to extend grazing.

Most farmers I speak to that are in this situation are feeding 3kg to 5kg of dairy ration plus a few kilos of silage or if silage is scarce they are feeding palm kernel.

Some of the merchants in Munster are reporting scarcity of palm kernel as they await new shipments so supply is tight at present.

At the above levels of meal feeding, there is not much scope to feed any more in order to produce more milk, despite the fact that the meal price to milk price ratio is favourable at present.

Where silage is being fed ensuring the best quality silage is being fed will keep milk supplies up.

However, like with grass, farmers need to ensure they keep some good silage in reserve for next spring.

There is every indication that prices will remain favourable for next spring and spring is always a far more important time to ensure that cows are well fed as cows are in early lactation and so what happens then has a greater impact on the rest of the lactation.

So, despite the temptation to graze away this autumn, or feed all the good bales now, some grass and good silage must be kept in reserve for next spring.

The only consideration is body condition score and while it is generally good now, it's not something that you want to see stripped coming into winter because it’ll affect performance next spring.

Drying off of first lactation cows should begin over the next few weeks as normal. They should get a 10 to 12 weeks dry period while all other cows in good condition can get eight weeks dry.