Eight summer foxtail millet cultivars were used to investigate the effect of nitrogen fertilizer application on summer foxtail millet yield and nitrogen use efficiency in field research.The result showed that nitrogen fertilizer treatments significantly increased average grain yield of eight millet cultivars compared with no fertilizer treatment,and the average increase rate was 82%.The yield increase of eight millet cultivars responded differently to nitrogen fertilization.The nitrogen application significantly increased yields of jigu14,jigu17 and jigu18,but had no effect on other foxtail millet cultivars.The nitrogen use efficiency was different among the eight summer foxtail millet cultivars,the agronomic efficiency of jigu14 was the highest and partial factor productivity of yugu18 and jigu18 were significantly higher than other foxtail millet cultivars.So the summer foxtail millet cultivars should be chosen considering both local situations and the different nitrogen character in north China.