What are milk goats?

I know they are goats with milk but what I mean is.....Do all goats produce milk? Are they just nursing goats ..(mothers) I don't understand ....please help ....are there certain breeds of goats that produce better milk than others? Thanks for your time! Any information or sites u can direct me at would be greatly appreciated!

There are different breeds of Dairy Goats (milking goats) And, yes some produce more than others...just like cattle..Holsteins are usually heavy producers while Jerseys are higher producers of butterfat.

The breeds of Dairy Goats are
Toggenburg (brown with white markings)
Saanen (always all white)
Oberhasli (red with black markings)
Nubian( floppy ears)
LaMancha (very small ears that look non existant)
Alpine (come in different color patterns)


Highest producers are usually Alpine, Toggenburg and Saanen.
Nubians produce high butterfat.

do a search for ADGA American Dairy Goat Association of America.

Then you have different breeds of goats that are used to produce meat (like Boers) and ones to produce hair (angora and cashmere) All female goats produce milk to feed their young, just that the dairy breeds produce the most.

Well of course wll goats produce milk.I don't know much about goats, but I have milked them.

nursing goats nurse their young. And ofcourse, not all goats produce milk. Do male goats produce milk? Only females.
Though i dont know what types of breeds produce the best milk.

Yes all goats, as all mammals, produce milk for their babies after they give birth.
They are bred for different purposes, just like cows or dogs. Some are better for some things than for others.
There are breeds of goat that have been bred for milk production, as answered above.
There are also goats that are bred for meat.
It's like the difference between a Jersey or Holstein and an Angus or Hereford cow.
Some breeds of goat are good for both meat and for milk.
There are also breeds that produce fiber, which is where Mohair and Cashmere come from

My favorite question! Yes, all mammals produce milk for their babies but milk goats, also called dairy goats, produce much more than their babies can eat. At least they are supposed to! And, surprise, some bucks also produce milk. They are rare but they do happen. Some females will also start producing milk without being bred.
Normally dairy goats are bred to kid or "freshen" at 12 to 14 months of age. They will usually have twins though triplets are very common as are singles. We've had lots of quads and one set of sextuplets.
Goats are usually milked for 305 days, just like cows, and are then dried off for two months before they kid again. Some dairy goats are only bred every other year. They will go down in milk production as the days grow shorter but when the days start to lenghten again they will go back up in milk. A good goat should give about 2500 pounds of milk in 305 days. That's about 278 gallons of milk. An exceptional goat might milk more than 5,000 pounds or around 555 gallons. There are also goats that only milk 500 pounds and won't milk for more than 6 months. That's just 55 gallons.
If you're really interested in dairy goats you could do a search for your states dairy goat association. Then you might be able to find someone near you that you could visit.