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Conservation agriculture, especially no‐tillage, has proven to become sustainable farming in many agricultural environments globally. In spite of advantages of no‐till systems, this practice may result in excess infiltration into the soil and can enhance the movement of mobile nutrients and some pesticides to subsurface drains and groundwater along preferential pathways. The goal of this study was to evaluate the capacity of DRAINMOD‐N II to simulate subsurface nitrate‐N leaching in no‐till fields in Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada, from 2003 to 2006. The model performance was first evaluated by comparing observed and simulated drain outflow data that is an essential prerequisite for the model to obtain a proper prediction of NO3‐N movement, and then by comparing observed and simulated NO3‐N concentration in no‐till fields using three statistical indices, relative root mean square error (RRMSE), average absolute deviation (AAD) and the correlation coefficient (R2). The RRMSE, AAD and R2 for the validation period were determined to be 1.09, 1.85 and 0.83 mm for drain outflow, and 1.43, 0.51 and 0.79 mg l−1 for NO3‐N concentration respectively. The results showed that DRAINMOD‐N II predicted NO3‐N leaching reasonably well in drainage outflow of no‐till fields over the whole period. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.