Question

I have several databases where the transaction log (.LDF) is many times larger than the database file (.MDF).

What can I do to automatically shrink these or keep them from getting so large?

Answer 1

That should do the job

use master go dump transaction <YourDBName> with no_log go use <YourDBName> go DBCC SHRINKFILE (<YourDBNameLogFileName>, 100) -- where 100 is the size you may want to shrink it to in MB, change it to your needs go -- then you can call to check that all went fine dbcc checkdb(<YourDBName>) 

A word of warning

You would only really use it on a test/development database where you do not need a proper backup strategy as dumping the log will result in losing transactions history. In live systems you should use solution sugested by Cade Roux