Blanket recommendations for nitrogen use only work in environments with relatively less variation in cropping practices, soils and yield potential. Instead, modern, tactical N management concepts should involve a combination of anticipatory (before planting) and responsive (during the growing season) decisions. This presentation describes the principles of N recommendation approaches for corn used in the western Corn Belt states. Based on that, an outline for further improvements towards quantitative N recommendation algorithms that explicitly account for crop N demand, N supply, N efficiency and prices is given.