Crop production on the Canadian Prairies is challenging due to short growing seasons, limited water supply, floods, severe storms, droughts and extreme temperatures. A short growing season with persistent moisture deficits means a significant portion of crop water use is supplied from soil moisture reserves that are governed by antecedent hydrology including snowmelt and infiltration. To improve understanding of this system and how it is influenced by agricultural practices, an extensive observation and modelling effort has been undertaken. Detailed observations from 15 site-years quantified field scale water balances and demonstrate that pre-growing season hydrological processes can supply up to 50% of the subsequent growing season crop water use. To quantify the impact of agricultural practises, such as stubble and crop residue management, and wintertime hydrological processes on crop growth, the Cold Regions Agricultural Hydrology Model (CRAHM) was developed. The CRAHM framework couples blowing snow, sublimation, snowmelt, and frozen soil infiltration processes from the Cold Regions Hydrological Modelling platform with AquaCropOS, a water-limited crop growth model. Validation of the CRAHM framework against an extensive observational dataset is presented. An example scenario articulates the process-level interactions between stubble management practices that manipulate snow accumulation with consequent impacts on crop production. The data and modelling tools presented herein increase our understanding, and ability to simulate and diagnose, water-limited crop yield and provides a framework to evaluate agricultural management opportunities to mitigate crop water variability and optimize productivity under current and future climates.