As we know, price floors, which keep prices above the equilibrium level, will encourage farmers to plant more and, at the same time, discourage consumers from using the related food products. The predictable result is a surplus of the crop. Surpluses were stored and sometimes shipped out of the country. As this was getting expensive and the storage becoming a problem, the government decided to try to limit production with acreage controls. This means that a 25 percent acreage reduction requirement will not reduce production by that amount.
Framers plant more per acre on the remaining land.
So attempts at limiting output did not work out very well. Also, they are very difficult to enforce. Government officials have to fly over land and identify the various landowners property and ascertain that certain portions of it are not cultivated. Since 1973, the government has used target prices on some items. In the diagram it is 500 million bushels of corn per year.