A government agency has come to the party to help Fonterra deal with the recent surge in milk production around the country.

The New Zealand Transport Authority has granted Fonterra a three-month permit to increase the operating weight of each of its milk tankers by a tonne.

This means that each tanker can collect an additional 1,000 litres of milk on every run, a total of 1.2 million litres of milk every day, for the next three months.

Fonterra says the extra weight is well within the design capacity of the tankers, and its drivers are trained to handle the bigger loads.