"I rang them up and said, I can do whatever a married man can do, and I started the next day," he said.
At the age of 19 he became Wattie's youngest orchard foreman for the company that grew its own peaches, pears, plums and process crops such as peas, beans and tomatoes.
He studied horticulture by correspondence and the company supported him at Massey University.
At 23 he managed its Lawn Rd farm at East Clive, which grew peaches, pears, tomatoes, cauliflowers and peas.
After two years he was made operations manager, overseeing 500 acres.
"Then Goodman Fielder came along."
The Australasian food conglomerate acquired Wattie's in 1987 and sold its farms.
Facing redundancy, the 27-year-old bought 25 acres of pears that came with a canning contract, placed on the market by his former employer.
Being self-employed was always "the ultimate goal".
"I could have carried on managing after being made redundant - managing somebody else's orchard - but realised in the corporate world nothing was assured."
The bank had a lien on his first crop but the enterprise was a success. He leased an apple block and acquired more land, until he owned more than 500 acres of orchard and leased 300ha.
His operation was second only to Mr Apple and he was main fruit supplier to Wattie's.
The 2005 season had poor returns and he started a relationship with South Canterbury Finance.
When South Canterbury Finance fell, so did Cooper Horticulture.
"They called in the loan - they just wanted it back. They had nowhere to go and of course at that time commercial banks weren't loaning money to orchards - especially apples - because they weren't seen to be profitable.
"They said to me unless I had 60 per cent equity within my business they wouldn't look at it, which was ridiculous, so I had nowhere to go."
He said he would probably still be in business if South Canterbury had not folded.
Cooper Horticulture went into receivership in 2010 owing $12.6 million.
Mr Apple bought his orchards but it, too, was directly affected by South Canterbury's failure.
Mr Apple is the largest apple producer/exporter in Hawke's Bay and wholly owned by Scales Corporation, which was majority-owned by South Canterbury Finance. The majority stake was sold to New Zealand investment firm Direct Capital and it is now a successful NZX-listed company.
At its biggest, Cooper Horticulture employed 160 people at harvest. When Mr Apple bought the business, it took staff over. Mr Cooper supports the current RSE scheme.
"We had the first generation of Pacific Island people from Samoa and they were extremely good. They were hard workers, dedicated, but unfortunately the next generation in New Zealand have become too accustomed to the Kiwi way of life. Some of them, we find, their enthusiasm is lacking.
"If we did not have the RSE scheme we would not get our crops harvested, for sure."
He said his former view, against deregulation of the apple industry in 2001, was clearly wrong. Until then there was only one apple exporter in New Zealand, the Apple and Pear Marketing Board. It was a selling monopoly under the ENZA brand.
"At the time the growers had nowhere to go, unfortunately. Prices we were receiving back through the farm gate were just not economic.
"I was of the opinion that regulation was still the way to go for New Zealand because we are such a small country and a long way from markets.
"Once we actually deregulated the returns the following year were so much improved. But we were warned that over time small family orchards may go, based on the corporate world trying to get involved.
"There were other countries like Canada with a deregulated industry - growers came over and spoke to us.
"It's interesting in New Zealand the corporates have pretty much taken control. They wanted deregulation but now they want regulation under their control."
Mr Cooper now leases orchards and is again supplying pears and peaches for Wattie's, "but only in a small way".
"I have a bit of time and passion for trying to keep the canning industry in Hawke's Bay."
He believes common sense will prevail with the proposed anti-dumping law changes.
"The product we grow in New Zealand is very, very good. It has a reputation for producing quality without chemical residue. No growers in Hawke's Bay use organophosphates anymore."
He hopes the lobbying won't need to escalate to the levels of protest before New Zealand won apple access to the Australian market. Growers marched the streets and visited Parliament en masse.
"It was so unfair. Australia was supplying tomatoes and a whole lot of other crops into New Zealand and we couldn't get apples in there. They were using the fire blight argument which we had proved many times over wasn't an actual worry for them. They were just using that as a stop measure. It got to the point where we actually needed to make a point."
Mr Yule said the anti-dumping lobbying effort was currently slow because ministers were on school-holiday leave but he is "quietly confident" the issue can be resolved.
Along with lobbying, Mr Cooper has finally found time to make himself eligible for the Wattie's job he won as a 16-year-old.
"I worked too hard on those younger days. It wasn't until I was 40 that I realised there was another side to life."
But work goes hand-in-hand with married life.
"People ask me, 'after you've been through all of this, why are you still doing it?' But actually I love growing fruit - I really enjoy it. So I got back on the horse and off I go again. I'm still young enough - I'm 53 - we just have to carry on."
His health took a turn in June last year. While towing a sprayer behind his tractor in Pakowhai's Brookfield Rd it was hit from behind.
"I'm very lucky to be alive. I have burns on my belly from the tractor's exhaust where I was pinned under it. All my ribs were smashed, I smashed my pelvis and had a twisted bowel.
"I still have nerve damage - I have no feeling in my foot and on one side."
The driver pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and was ordered to pay $5000 reparation.
"With all the financial crap I've been through and then this, you wonder what's next," Mr Cooper said.
"You can't change what happened, just learn from it and keep going."
