Accurate forecasting of nitrogen (N) required for plant growth can serve as a guide to improving agricultural practices and regulations. The objectives of this study were to: (i) establish a critical N (Nc) dilution curve for winter barley based on the shoot dry matter (DM), (ii) compare this curve with other Nc dilution curves of different species, and (iii) assess the plausibility of using this curve to estimate the N status of winter barley. Four field experiments were conducted with different N application rates. Twenty plants from each plot were sampled from the Feekes 3 to Feekes 10.51 stage for growth analysis. The relationship between Nc and shoot DM could be described by a negative power equation, Nc = 4.76DM−0.39, when shoot DM values were in the range of 1.79– 13.69 t ha−1. For DM values