The use of urease inhibitors and irrigation are management options to increasing the efficiency of top-dressed urea by reducing NH3 volatilization. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the productive performance and N recovery of 'BRS 254' wheat plants without irrigation after applying urea or urea+NBPT [N-(n-butyl)thiophosphoric triamide] as the top dressing. The experiment was carried out in Viçosa, MG, Brazil, between May and September of 2008 using a complete randomized block design with a 2×6+1 factorial arrangement of the following treatments: 1) urea or urea+NBPT, 2) six periods without irrigation (0, 48, 96, 144, 192 or 240 h after applying the top-dressing fertilizer), and 3) a control without N; there were four replications. The data were subjected to an analysis of variance (P≤0.05). The mean values of the treatments with urea or urea+NBPT were compared by Tukey's test (P≤0.05), and the effects of the periods without irrigation were analyzed by a regression (P≤0.05). The results of the study show that NBPT did not lead to agronomic advantages for the wheat crop under the study conditions, and the absence of irrigation after urea application as the top dressing led to less N utilization by the wheat plants.