Nitrogen, crop production, and environment are interrelated. The presentation will discuss recent and ongoing studies in Minnesota aimed at understanding how to manage nitrogen efficiently to enhance corn production while minimizing negative environmental impact. Realizing that overemphasizing one component or underemphasis another creates instability, just like adding or cutting a piece of a leg in a three-legged stool, this research is trying to find the "sweet spot" where each of these three components are harmonized to produce a sustainable productive and environmentally-sound system. The presentation will discuss various nitrogen management strategies and how they influence crop nitrogen uptake, grain yield, residual soil nitrogen, and environmental losses that include nitrate leaching, nitrous oxide emissions, and ammonia volatilization. Because weather has a pivotal role on these outcomes, whenever possible, the presentation will relate results to the weather conditions present during the different growing seasons.