Well, FDR did it during the Great Depression. (FDR made the Depression longer and worse because of crap like this):
From the net:
Culling the herd isn’t new to America. In Burton W. Folsom’s book “New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDR’s Economic Legacy Has Damaged America,” the retired professor of history at Hillsdale College brings to light some of the darker aspects of the New Deal.
During the Great Depression, the cost of livestock and crops were so low that Franklin D. Roosevelt, as a part of his New Deal, introduced the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). This legislation paid farmers to kill millions of hogs and cows and plow under over 10 million acres of cotton to artificially inflate prices. Unfortunately, this occurred as millions of Americans were going hungry.
This tactic was widely scrutinized and criticized. It was difficult for farmers to reconcile, having worked hard to raise animals and cultivate crops to feed their communities and the rest of the country. In the end, Americans had to pay a higher price for goods and the U.S. ended up importing tens of millions of pounds of crops that they were paying farmers not to produce.
I was searching for some images from the 1930’s of the culling. It also showed crops and stuff destroyed last year due to the pandemic. But that wasn’t forced on the farmers by the government. Farmers that sold primarily to restaurants lost their market and had to dump stuff until they could adjust.
I recall the stories of milk that used to be sold to restaurants in bulk had to be destroyed as there weren’t any small containers to sell to grocery stores. Plus set up new contracts, etc. That all takes time. I’m guessing they got that sorted out though.