The album was produced by Alan Douglas[2] and recorded at Sound Mixers, New York City.[3] All of the tracks except "Laura" were composed by McIntyre.[1] The final track, "Someday", was taken from a June 11, 1962 session involving trombonist John Mancebo Lewis,[3] but although he is mentioned on the sleeve[2] this was in fact the only track from that session on which he did not play.[3] A second session, on August 31, yielded "Cosmos", played by McIntyre with Jaki Byard (piano), Ron Carter (bass), and Louis Hayes (drums).[3] For the final session, four days later, Hayes was replaced by Ben Riley, and the remaining four tracks on the album were recorded.[3]
Year of the Iron Sheep was released on LP by United Artists.[2] It was later combined with another album and additional tracks on the 2-CD set The Complete United Artists Sessions.[4]
Billboard selected the album as a "special merit pick", commenting that "McIntyre's work on alto and flute is exciting and lyrical, and worth hearing as a new direction in scored jazz."[1]