Subsidies are a means to an end, and that end is a consistent supply of the products that the country demands. If a country demands affordable meat, then subsidies will be used by the government if there are challenges in meeting the demand for affordable meat. You may find it easier to think of subsidies as an incentive that the government offers farmers to do the things the government wants them to do. If there’s a healthy supply of, say, corn, and that supply is meeting demand, then the government does not necessarily need to subsidise the costs of growing corn to the same degree as it might for meat.
I’m far from an expert on this subject, but I recall the chaos in the US soybean markets in the first half of Donald Trump’s US presidency being a great introduction to just how much governments are involved in agriculture, and how much policy can influence supply and costs of individual crops.