## Materials and Methods
### Milk Collection, Cheese Manufacture and Sampling  
After weaning the lambs in November, the dams were milked with an automated parallel milking machine once a day for cheese manufacture from December 2015 to March 2016 (approximately from the middle to the end of lactation). The dams were included in the milking programme according to when their lambs were weaned, and they were removed once they were dried off, but the number of milking ewes remained stable over these months (an average of 150 animals). After homogenising the total yield of daily milk using a mechanical shaker, bulk raw milk samples were taken twice a month (\(n=8\), four replicate samples for each stage of lactation) for cheese-making. Five aliquots of whole milk from each sample were placed in 50 mL plastic bottles for chemical analyses. The sheephederder made cheese in two vats with the same bulk milk sample, one to make fresh soft cheese (FC, \(n=8\)) and the other to made ripened cheese (RC, \(n=8\)). The cheeses were made following traditional manufacturing conditions. Overall, 16 cheese-making processes were completed. The FC was made with pasteursied milk and without adding starter culture. Milk was pasteursied at 63 \({}^{\circ}\)C for 30 min and cooled to the ripening temperature (34 \({}^{\circ}\)C). Calf rement commonly used by farmers (>60% chymosin and <40% pepsin) was added in the amount of 1 mL per 3 L of milk, following the manufacturer's instructions, to obtain clotting within 45 min. After coagulation, all the cards were cut to obtain grains the size of millet. Salt (NaCl) was added to this mixture in a proportion of 1%, w/v. The curd was stirred manually for approximately 20 min, and then the whey was drained. The curd was packed into cylindrical moulds (500 g), and the cheeses were transferred to an airing chamber at a temperature of 3-4 \({}^{\circ}\)C without humidity control. The cheeses were sold the next day with a shelf life of 8 days in refrigeration. The RC was made with starter culture added to unpasteurised milk. After heating to 34 \({}^{\circ}\)C, the ferment was added in the proportion of 6 g per 100 L of milk (Mesophilic Starter Series MA 4001, Dupont Nutrition and Biosciences Iberica, Valencia, Spain). After 30 min of ripening, calf rennet was added in the same proportion to obtain clotting in 45 min. After coagulation, the curd was cut with a lyre of parallel wires to obtain grains the size of hazelnuts. The curd was stirred semi-mechanically for 30-40 min, and then the whey was drained. The curd was packed into cylindrical moulds (500 g or 1 kg) and pressed in a hydraulic press (2.4 kPa) for 1 h. Then, they were salted by brining in NaCl solution (6 \({}^{\circ}\)C, 16\({}^{\circ}\) Bau, and pH 5.15-5.20) for 8 h. Afterwards, the cheeses were transferred to an airing chamber for 72 h at 12 \({}^{\circ}\)C and 80% relative humidity. Finally, the cheeses were transferred to a maturation chamber for 60-70 days of storage at 13 \({}^{\circ}\)C and 85-90% relative humidity. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Item**} & \multicolumn{4}{c}{**Chemical Composition (\% Dry Matter, DM)**} \\  & **DM** & **Crude Protein** & **Crude Fibre** & **Ether Extract** & **Ash** \\ \hline Husks and broken cereals & 88.8 & 17.4 & 8.50 & 2.24 & 6.57 \\ Cereal mix (barley, 40\%; oats, 40\%; beans, 20\%) & 89.8 & 13.3 & 10.3 & 2.94 & 2.58 \\ Oat hay & 80.6 & 6.04 & 40.2 & 2.40 & 6.62 \\ Barley straw & 91.7 & 3.70 & 38.2 & 1.62 & 7.63 \\ Oat silage & 30.3 & 8.32 & 29.6 & 3.36 & 7.57 \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 1: Chemical composition of the main supplementary feeds during lactation. The milk samples and cheeses were transported in a portable cooler with ice. Once in the laboratory, the cheeses were cut into sections (approximately 200 g each) and vacuum-packed. All milk and cheese samples were wrapped in aluminium sheets to preserve them from light and frozen at \(-20\)\({}^{\circ}\)C until analysis, except the samples for the analysis of vitamins, which were frozen at \(-80\)\({}^{\circ}\)C.