If you see flames or smoke at this time of year coming from paddocks, chances are its a controlled burn-off with permits now being issued across the North East.

At this time of year farmers burn stubble from last season's crops, however, a permit is required as the fire danger period (FDP) is still active.

District 23 assistant chief fire officer Brett Myers told North East Media that permits opened last week and they have stringent conditions.

"This to make sure there is no risk a burning process will cause a fire to escape into an area that isn't intended to be burnt," he said.

"There have been nine permits issued in District 23 since last week but there will be a delay on burning farmers' schedules due to the recent rain which caused weed to grow.

"Farmers are needing to spray the weeds, allowing them to die off before they go and commence any burning and resowing for next year's crop."

One of the conditions on permits is that holders notify the triple zero centre that they're undertaking burning.

"People will still ring triple zero reporting flame or smoke from a paddock and they'll cross-check to see if it's a permitted burn," Mr Myers said.

"It's at a point in the year and it's recommended that people contact triple zero when they are seeing flame and not so much smoke.

"There were a couple of triple zero calls last week relating to farmers burning stubble which was controlled and safe - this was a bit of an inconvenience to CFA volunteers.

"Members of the public should do their own due diligence to work out what's going on (for example stubble burn) before they get on the phone to triple zero."

Discussions about the FDP ending were had last Thursday by an advisory group and interested authorities.

This group consists of senior CFA volunteers, local government, Forest Fire Management Victoria, as well as industry representatives in the cropping and grape growing sectors.

Mr Myers said the decision between the group was that they're not ready, as the risk hasn't reduced enough yet for people to be burning off without any control mechanisms.

"I don't want to put a timeframe on it yet but we are managing the conditions quite closely, taking into account the rain early this week but the Bureau of Meteorology indicating we'll go into a drying cycle in the next week to 10 days," he said.

"I feel like we're still a couple of weeks off."

The timing and conditions imposed this year have been consistent for all municipalities across North East Victoria which saves potential confusion over fire district boundaries.

There have been issues in the past where one district has a certain schedule to another in terms of restrictions and Mr Myers said there has been favourable feedback on the changes.

For more information about permits visit https://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/warnings-restrictions/fire-permits/fire-danger-period-permits.