The USDA-Agricultural Research Service carried out an experiment on water productivity in response to seasonal timing of irrigation of maize (*Zea mays* L.) at the Limited Irrigation Research Farm (LIRF) facility in northeastern Colorado (40°26’ N, 104°38’ W) starting in 2012. Twelve treatments involved different water availability targeted at specific growth-stages. This dataset includes data from the first two years, which were complete years with intact treatments. Data includes canopy growth and development (canopy height, canopy cover and LAI), irrigation, precipitation, and soil water storage measured periodically through the season; daily estimates of crop evapotranspiration; and seasonal measurement of crop water use, harvest index and crop yield. Hourly and daily weather data are also provided from the CoAgMET, Colorado’s network of meteorological information.