"I went into the packhouse pretty much straight away," he says.
"I had no experience of kiwifruit, but growing up on a dairy farm, a lot of principles are the same. And my earth science background meant the soil side of things was fairly easy to understand."
Working in the packhouse for the three months of the picking season fits in well as it coincides with a quiet time on the orchard.
"I love it. It's a really good change. I go from nine months of the year working by myself or with another one or two people to a pretty dynamic environment for a couple of months."
He says there is no doubt there is pressure.
"The site managers have always been really good in not putting undue pressure on us. They aren't standing over our shoulders saying 'you've to go pack so many bins'.
"We always know we need to go as fast as we can and we've got to stay within Zespri's guidelines, but not lose fruit for the grower as well."
He loves the interaction of the packhouse.
"Last year we had people from all over Europe, the States, the UK, numerous countries in Asia, India and Nepal. Because you're together for so long, while you don't get to know anybody really well, you do get to meet a big variety of people and I love that side of things as well."
Dougal's responsibility starts when the bins of fruit arrive at the shed.
"We get a list of what we are going to be doing that day. In terms of running the machine, my direct responsibility is to set the speed, set the different sizes. It's my hands-on job to run that machinery and the electronics to the best of its ability."
Overarching that is the need to make sure everyone is doing their job right, he says.
