"I got really lucky as the cow lives 2 miles away, and freshened in october. I wouldn't have thought that would be good time to freshen a cow? I read that in days past goats (English Alpines) had been bred to only have to freshen once. It would sure be nice if breeders would try to select for that trait again."
Having a cow freshen is the point, when it happens can be inconvenient, but in this day and age they can calve at any time. Our cow last calved November 27, 2010. I didn't want a calf to be born that late in the year, but I had some trouble getting her bred back. Better to have a winter calf than to have a cow dry off and not be pregnant at all.
I know that there are some dairy cows and some dairy goats that are very persistent milkers, but with "normal" dairy genetics these days, they breed for high production, rather than persistency. A cow that is on a schedule to freshen once a year works well with the big dairy system. They also give more milk over a short period of time and as time goes on, production dwindles, which is not attractive.
This is on the commercial level, of course, but with the exception of a small population, they are the ones that determine what the rest of us get for milking livestock.
