A control strategy for producing high quality extrudates, including the steps of monitoring the temperature of a ceramic precursor batch by measuring the temperature of the batch material either directly or indirectly by measuring the temperature of a component of the extruder proximate to the die and transmitting the temperature data to an extrusion control system which comprises a master controller (106), at least one slave controller (110) and an optional supervisory controller. The supervisory controller determines batch temperature setpoint (102) in order to achieve the desired temperatures for extruding a certain type of batch material based on real time temperature inputs and stored parameters such as batch composition, process throughput, extruder cooling capacity, and the like. The master controller (106) receives batch temperature setpoint from the supervisory controller, and monitors batch temperature and in turn regulates at least one slave controller (110) which controls the flow of coolant (112) to portions of an extruder (114) in contact with the batch material.