I have all kinda of questions.
Your saying the two sides of beef weighed 1,600lbs?
Even if he yielded 64%. That would make him 2,500lbs live. What breed was he? How old was he? I've seen 2,700lb Holstein strs, but their older. 4-5years maybe.
That's what the butcher told me. Each side weighed 800 pounds, which is as high as their scales go, and they said he actually weighed a little more than that, but they're charging the fees based on 1,600 pounds. I don't know how much he weighed live weight, but it was a lot. He was a tank. I'm 5'10" and I could barely see over the top of his back without standing on my tippy-toes.
He was 5 years old, because of a lot of things happening, not least of which was our big chest freezer going belly up on us, and we had to keep putting off his date for freezer camp. Then the coronavirus happened and everyone spazzed out and last year was a bust, then when I started calling around a couple weeks ago, I was hearing one to two MORE years before we could have him done, but fortunately for us, we have a very nice butcher, and they took him in right away because the steer had crossed toes on one hind foot and was in some pain because of that. We don't have the facilities here to restrain anything that big and the one guy in the area that trims hooves has a chute with tilt table that was way too small to fit him, so we had to do something. The only thing I could think of was to get him butchered, and right now. Luckily, my stars aligned.
As far as breed, he's 3/4 Angus (and 1/8 Jersey and 1/8 Hereford), the son of one of my Angus cross milk cows. He was dam-raised on milk until he was about 9 months old, and since then he's been on hay and/or pasture, depending on the season.
Oh, and the 1,600 pounds didn't include the slabs of fat they had to cut off and throw away to allow the carcass to cool properly. I was a little upset when I heard that, because I want to keep a stock of fat for the LGD dog for winter calories, but the butcher laughed and said not to worry, there was plenty more where THAT came from! I can tell you, this was one pampered steer (he was very gentle, too). He didn't do much more than eat, poop, and sleep.
But now he's going to fulfill his purpose and feed us, so I am a very happy camper right now!