diff --git a/libexec/rc/rc.d/motd b/libexec/rc/rc.d/motd
--- a/libexec/rc/rc.d/motd
+++ b/libexec/rc/rc.d/motd
@@ -21,10 +21,6 @@
 
 motd_start()
 {
-	#	Update kernel info in /var/run/motd
-	#	Must be done *before* interactive logins are possible
-	#	to prevent possible race conditions.
-	#
 	startmsg -n 'Updating motd:'
 	if [ ! -f "${TEMPLATE}" ]; then
 		# Create missing template from existing regular motd file, if
@@ -43,13 +39,7 @@
 		ln -sF "${TARGET}" "${COMPAT_MOTD}"
 	fi
 
-	T=`mktemp -t motd`
-	uname -v | sed -e 's,^\([^#]*\) #\(.* [1-2][0-9][0-9][0-9]\).*/\([^\]*\)$,\1 (\3) #\2,' \
-	    -e 's,^\([^ ]*\) \([^ ]*\) \([^ ]*\) \([^ ]*\)$,\1 \2 (\4) \3,' > ${T}
-	cat "${TEMPLATE}" >> ${T}
-
-	install -C -o root -g wheel -m "${PERMS}" "$T" "${TARGET}"
-	rm -f "$T"
+	install -C -o root -g wheel -m "${PERMS}" "${TEMPLATE}" "${TARGET}"
 
 	startmsg '.'
 }
diff --git a/share/man/man5/motd.5 b/share/man/man5/motd.5
--- a/share/man/man5/motd.5
+++ b/share/man/man5/motd.5
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 .\"
 .\" This file is in the public domain.
 .\"
-.Dd October 18, 2020
+.Dd February 1, 2024
 .Dt MOTD 5
 .Os
 .Sh NAME
@@ -15,11 +15,6 @@
 .Xr login 1
 after a user has logged in but before the shell is run.
 It is generally used for important system-wide announcements.
-During system startup, a line containing the kernel version string is
-prepended to
-.Pa /etc/motd.template
-and the contents are written to
-.Pa /var/run/motd .
 .Pp
 .Pa /var/run/motd
 can be updated without a system reboot by manually restarting the
@@ -46,7 +41,6 @@
 .El
 .Sh EXAMPLES
 .Bd -literal
-FreeBSD 12.1-RELEASE (GENERIC) #0: Sun Dec 29 03:08:31 PST 2019
 
 /home is full.  Please cleanup your directories.
 .Ed