As a group, on the national scale, farmers may curtail some production of certian product and add production of others.. With some reservations, farmers will grow what makes them the most money. A farmer with the choice to grow corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton and milo will move his acres around to some extent to optimize his return and minimize his input cost. Some farmers may let land lay fallow for a year but probably not much more. Changing to a different enterprise, such as quitting corn and adding hogs is an expensive and time consuming process.
Regionally, farmers may differently.
The farmer who raises corn and soybeans well but has little or no market for wheat, cotton or mil, willl grow even more corn and soybeans. What else can he do? He will try to minimize inputs and maximize returns within his limited range of flexibility.
No farmer is going to voluntarily reduce production to increase prices, because the neighbor will have the incentive to increase porduciton to take advantage of the better pricies caused by lower supply. The farmer who reduced producion hurts himself first and worst.
Among the adjustments that will be made are waterways may be tighted up, headlands eliminated and so forth to bring more land into produciton unless they are covered by government payments. Fertilizer and herbicides may be skimped on and that may reduce production, though the farmer hopes not.
