The extent to which conditions and experiences of the farm crisis have tempered or shaped farm operators' opinions about the role of the scientific community in economic development through university-industry linkages is examined in this paper. Eleven Likert-type items, designed to ascertain how these linkages are viewed, were included in the 1987 Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll. Farmers' opinions were assessed on how much collaboration is desirable and the desired role of the private sector in selecting problems to be studied. The hypotheses were that economic hardship, scientific orientations, economic development perspectives, and personal sociodemographic characteristics would be important predictors. Findings showed that farmers generally supported stronger university-industry linkages, and agreed that scientific research is determined by who can pay, rather than what is needed. Mixed opinions were held on how new discoveries should be made available, and whether the amount of private consulting by university scientists should be curtailed. The 11 attitudinal items factored into 4 scales with low reliability coefficients, in part due to the limited number of items in each factor. It was concluded that although farmers are generally supportive of university-industry linkages, it is too early to accurately predict whether future support will be sustained. (JMM)