diff --git a/etc/crontab b/etc/crontab
index 4f3568117111..56ef4758eb67 100644
--- a/etc/crontab
+++ b/etc/crontab
@@ -25,7 +25,3 @@ HOME=/var/log
 # does nothing, if you have UTC cmos clock.
 # See adjkerntz(8) for details.
 1,31	0-5	*	*	*	root	adjkerntz -a
-#
-# Try and stop mail sitting around in the queue forever if there is no
-# sendmail -q30m periodically trying to dequeue it.
-41	6	*	*	*	root	/usr/sbin/sendmail -q
diff --git a/etc/defaults/periodic.conf b/etc/defaults/periodic.conf
index f72b1460b2ed..a5aee1bda45f 100644
--- a/etc/defaults/periodic.conf
+++ b/etc/defaults/periodic.conf
@@ -118,6 +118,9 @@ daily_status_security_nomfs="NO"			# Don't check mfs mounts
 daily_status_mail_rejects_enable="YES"			# Check mail rejects
 daily_status_mail_rejects_logs=3			# How many logs to check
 
+# 500.queuerun
+daily_queuerun_enable="YES"				# Run mail queue
+
 # 999.local
 daily_local="/etc/daily.local"				# Local scripts
 
diff --git a/etc/periodic/daily/500.queuerun b/etc/periodic/daily/500.queuerun
new file mode 100755
index 000000000000..2a8b2a170d14
--- /dev/null
+++ b/etc/periodic/daily/500.queuerun
@@ -0,0 +1,34 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+#
+# $FreeBSD$
+#
+
+# If there is a global system configuration file, suck it in.
+#
+if [ -r /etc/defaults/periodic.conf ]
+then
+    . /etc/defaults/periodic.conf
+    source_periodic_confs
+fi
+
+case "$daily_queuerun_enable" in
+    [Yy][Ee][Ss])
+	if [ ! -x /usr/sbin/sendmail ]
+	then
+	    echo '$daily_queuerun_enable is set but /usr/sbin/sendmail' \
+		"isn't executable"
+	    rc=2
+	elif [ ! -d /var/spool/mqueue ]
+	then
+	    echo '$daily_queuerun_enable is set but /var/spool/mqueue' \
+		"doesn't exist"
+	    rc=2
+	else
+	    /usr/sbin/sendmail -q >/dev/null 2>&1 &
+	    rc=0
+	fi;;
+
+    *)  rc=0;;
+esac
+
+exit $rc
diff --git a/share/man/man5/periodic.conf.5 b/share/man/man5/periodic.conf.5
index 1aba0a647665..24e2b298d174 100644
--- a/share/man/man5/periodic.conf.5
+++ b/share/man/man5/periodic.conf.5
@@ -393,6 +393,10 @@ for the previous day.
 .It Ar daily_status_mail_rejects_logs
 (num) Set to the number of maillog files that should be checked
 for yesterday's mail rejects.
+.It Ar daily_queuerun_enable
+(bool) Set to
+.Dq YES
+if you want to manually run the mail queue at least once a day.
 .It Ar daily_local
 (str) Set to a list of extra scripts that should be run after all other
 daily scripts.