Technical Abstract: Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) is an important source of forage for herbivores across the North/South transition zone but a fungal endophyte can result in decreased animal performance in response to alkaloids. Removing the endophyte can reduce agronomic performance. An improved cultivar (Jesup) with a novel (nontoxic) endophyte (trade mark ¿MaxQ¿) has improved agronomic performance and warrants evaluation hays fed to ruminants. Persistence may be related to both agronomic traits and to animal feeding preferences based on endophyte status. We tested for variation in animal preference for 2 cuts of three hays made from Jesup tall fescue that varied in endophyte status. Two hays had no endophyte, two hays contained the novel endophyte, and the other two hays contained a wild-type endophyte that produces alkaloids associated with fescue toxicosis. We tested for preference using goats (Capra hircus), sheep (Ovis aries), and cattle (Bos taurus). All possible pairs were tested and compared using traditional analysis of variance as well as multidimensional scaling to estimate the number of criteria that animals were using to separate the hays. Multidimensional scaling of the animal preferences indicated that 2 dimensions were being used to rank the hays. The first dimension was related strongly to variation in maturity in all three animal species. The second dimension used to separate the hays was not correlated with any of the measured variables. In addition, endophyte status was not a factor in the preferences expressed by the 3 animal species. It appears that no effective feedback mechanism exists that would result in a preference against an endophyte infected fescue when paired with a fescue without the endophyte or with a novel endophyte without alkaloids.